Bailey

 

That's our big mutt - Bailey. Or, at least, she was our big mutt... Recently her old age, arthritis, and diabetes just got to be too much for her, so today, we had to say good bye.

It's been hard on Allen. She was his dog really; he discovered her on a Humane Society webpage and it was love at first sight. Originally he thought she had a lot of Berner in her and was hoping to train her to pull a cart, but she never got quite big enough. I don't remember how many weeks old she was when she became ours back in 2002, but she had a long life for a big dog.

The kids have taken it better than I expected; they haven't known life without her. But, they have watched her slowly deteriorate from the playful friend who loved to be plunked down upon as if she were a piece of furniture, to the geriatriclly fragile fourteen year-old girl they had to be so gentle with. It's been a rough night here as they begin to process their grief, but we are trying to remind them that just as their lives were better because Bailey was a part of it, her life was better because of us...