R.I.P. Pete

Sorry for the blog blackout the last week or so. I didn't really have much to say at the end of last week and then had a busy weekend making the rounds of our mothers' houses to celebrate Mother's Day. Monday and Tuesday brought the workload slam and then on Wednesday we had some tragedy with one of our dogs and yesterday I was pretty much out of commission mentally. (I am still planning on doing a much belated Mother's Day post but it will have to be at a later date. Stay tuned.)

I won't go into any of the gory details but we came home on Wednesday after work to one of our neighbors waiting in our driveway. She explained that Pete had been injured and that another neighbor had taken him to the vet. We were, as you might imagine, stunned and went inside to listen to the messages from the police (who had been called out to our house because of Pete) and the vet's office. (The one from the vet's office really irritated the bejeezus out of me because it was basically, call us back asap so we can start emergency treatment. Hello! This is the home number on a Wednesday, WE'RE AT WORK AND WON'T BE HOME UNTIL AFTER 6.) By the time we got home, the vet's office was closed. We tried the emergency pager number but couldn't get anyone to call us back (don't EVEN get me started on this) so we spent the evening and much of a sleepless night with images of our neighbor's description of the situation bouncing around in our heads, bumping up against the worry about the possibilities about the reality of the situation. We had a discussion about what our next step should be and decided that based on our understanding of the severity of his injuries, we would probably have to make the call to have him euthanized. When I say "we" I really mean TLS, because he truly is The Doer of Dirty Deeds around our house. I think I'm fairly good to have around in a crisis, but when the actual crisis is past (as it was from the very first minute we arrived), I am a blubbering wreck. I went off to work yesterday morning leaving TLS as the official decision maker. (Thank God that he had to make the phone call to the vet and not me, because as I said earlier: me=blubbering wreck.) Needless to say, euthanization was the right, but difficult, call. Afterward, TLS brought him home and buried him under the huge sycamore tree in our front yard next to our first cat, Boo. He has his own stone marker and is hopefully enjoying his time racing over the rainbow bridge and barking at motorcyclists to his heart's content.

Rest in peace, Pete. We will miss you.