All right. I’ll lay it on the line. I’ve had three real shitty summers in a row. I’m trying to get my act together. The summer of 2006 we lost Jessie, our border collie of five years, to cancer. Jessie was an SPCA rescue. In the summer of 2007 my mom passed away a few days after being diagnosed with cancer. She was only fifty seven years old. This summer, mid-July, Dixie, our border collie of nine years whom we raised from a seven-week old puppy, died of cancer.
It’s been real hard. You haven’t recovered from one loss when you’re forced to deal with another. I know millions have it worse and have sadder tales to tell, but this is my little world and it’s felt a little shaky lately. I’m trying my best to sort things out in my pea brain and recapture my muse.
In the meantime, please enjoy this photo of Bandit. If I could muster half her zest for life, I’d be doin’ just fine.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow. That is rough. I guess we just need to make it our mission to un-shitty your lives.
First step is for you to move to this coast. I’m soooo looking forward to that.
: )
I’m sorry for all your losses, That’s some shitty times. They look like beautiful dogs. I feel your pain, we lost our dog of 10 years, Marley last November and just lost our cat of 8 years, Sydney (named after the Sydney olympics) yesterday. Of course that’s nothing like losing a parent, especially at a young age.
Cancer is the worst.
Aw Jim, I’m so sorry to hear about Sydney. I really am thinking of you (’cause everyone says they are). Did you read Marley & Me? I quite enjoyed it aside from the tears.
All my best.
Thanks Joe. I did read Marley and Me, I really enjoyed it too. Made me cry like when Old Yeller died. It’s funny how he got so attached to a dog that destroyed so much.