Yesterday afternoon
This afternoon
This afternoon ...without his collar jingling, without his heavy breathing, without his claws on the hardwood floor, without his lapping up half his water dish in a single sitting (and dripping it all over the floor and your pants). But he went quickly, and he is no longer in pain. And, as out of the main as the thought may be, I believe God will have our animals in heaven. (I'm used to being out of the main in things theological.)
Contemplatin' the nature of life; spring break last year
Sleepy. He was a leaner, and a hugger, and a paw-er. 
Treeing the cat!
December 2006 -- we'd had him about two months. What a great white face. He's our fourth Golden to have loved and lost. We do rescue. And I can't help it; I just always fall in love with the oldsters. They're always so cute, and so sweet, and so un-naughty, and so deserving. Our first oldster, a true saint, we had for four months before an undiscovered tumor took him. Our second developed seizures due to a cerebellar issue and died of pancreatitis; we had her for over a year, maybe a year and a half, during which time she went from being a coffee table to being a svelte red gal. Our third we had to let go of because rheumatoid arthritis finally caused his back end to stop working; I think we may have had him a year and a half to two years. And now we've had to let go of OldManDog, whose cancer recurred (this following two surgeries last year) and whose paw abscessed to the point where he couldn't hoist himself up anymore and had to be carried outside (this in the last two days). OMD is our longest tenure yet; two and a half years. We always swear we're going to get a younger one the next time, because this is just too hard. And then I go and fall in love all over again.
This spring break
Last spring break
I'm sure I'll tell you more stories about him in the coming weeks. Feel free to skip them if they get to be too much. But I'll keep telling them because it's the best way to keep him and his ball-playing goofiness alive in our hearts. We'll cry tonight and wake up puffy and headachey tomorrow. Thanks for making it this far through all the pictures.
