The Fergie

Here is my beloved, beloved Irish Setter, Fergie. He is such a good sport about things like Reindeer antlers and toddler hugs. And now he is in the hospital and things do not look good for him. I am waiting now to hear the results of his ultrasound, as he has an extremely enlarged spleen, which is indicative of cancer in 90% of older dogs. He is 9 1/2 years old, and although you may not tell from this picture, he is a very large Irish.

They usually run 60-65 pounds, and he is around 85-90 pounds. This winter he ran up to 92 pounds, but when he got sick two weeks ago and stopped eating, his weight went down to his summer weight of 85 (not the way for this to happen, by the way).

I'm so deeply saddened by the impending loss of my friend and companion. My eldest son is afficted with Asperger's Syndrome, or high-functioning Autism. One of the hallmarks for this is a lack of social reciprocity, including hugging and expressions of love. He really doesn;t like to be touched at all, and as I am a very huggy person, this was extremely difficult. Fergie filled that void for me, as well as being a friend to take walks at 5 a.m. and *like* it, protector of my kids outside, and protector of the house. Although Irish are not known for being "guard" dogs, he was super protective of his family.

The hardest part of being a pet owner is making this last and difficult decision...when will my friend die? Oh, I could do surgery, and chemo, but I'm just not willing to do that to him. I tried to keep two cats alive through extreme measures, and they suffered because I could not let go. I am determined to not do this to him, to give him the dignity and strength that he deserves from me. But, oh how I hate it.

Letting go, saying goodbye, and helping my kids deal with this loss ... so hard. Yet, it is an incredibly intense part of the circle of life. We all will die someday. Being a pagan somehow helps me feel better about this, that he and I are part of this same wheel. I knew his circle would be shorter than mine, but I do believe there is another side of life, after we draw our last breath here, we, our spirits/energies will pass on to another place. Fergie will go there before me, but I know when it is my turn to go there, he will be there, bounding up to me in that lovely Irish Setter way, fur-feathers flying, and that happy, joyful look upon his sweet face.

Blessed be, my beloved friend. Our time here was too short. But I needs must let your spirit free from your hurting body. I love you.

Finally...

Finally we are all feeling better! It's been 3 weeks of crud, coughing, sneezing, red noses, coughing, plugged ears....you name it, someone in this big family has had it!!

Somehow, during our period of....being offline, ya, I like thinkin' of it like that, we were offline, and now we've reconnected! anyway...during our period of being offline, Spring came for a visit. St. Patties day was a huge bust, as we had a mega-big snowstorm (well the biggest one for us all year) and no one was feeling good, so we had to take all day to shovel the driveway...and our neighbor across the street came over with his snowblower to help out! What a great guy! I know you guys love your toys, and snowblowers are a pretty fun one to have...but it really saved the day for us. Still took the rest of the day to unbury the cars and the path to the shed for the trash runs, and shovel off the deck at the back door so we could get out there and down cellar to get to the washer.

Finally...after another week of cold weather after that big snowstorm, it warmed up and hit 60's for a few days...even yesterday it was mid-50's. They kept saying we were going to get snow last night, but surely they were dead wrong...I mean, c'mon! It was 56 at 6 p.m. yesterday. And at 8 when I let the dog out it was raining so hard! Then I let him out at 915 and it was snowing so hard....sheesh !

But it was all over before 5 a.m. when the dog asked to go out again, and was falling off the trees so much that it sounded like someone was walking all over the roof! We only got 3 inches of snow, and it was all melted by 930 when we left for church. Now that's a great spring snowstorm!

and Finally...it's time for me to head off for bed.

I'm glad I Finally had some time for my blog! I miss blogging. It's like free therapy. I can bitch and whine and share happy stuff...just wait until you get my next blog, talk about news...but I can't just now because...

Finally, I'm done!

Youngers and stuff...

When you see these two munchins don't you just want to cuddle and hug them? Elisabeth has just discovered her fingers work! She's holding a soft rattle in the top picture, and as I was trying to take the photo, she was shaking it madly! She is in what we call "cell phone practice posture" .....

And here is KC giving his sister a hug. He was thrilled to be able to "hold" her, while he was showing off the hat that I made for him. His favorite color right now is orange, and the hat is even brighter in real life.

Yesterday Elisabeth turned 3 months...it's hard to believe that much time has gone by since she came to us...and one month from today, KC turns three! Oh my! My wee lad is growing up! He is fiercely independent, wanting to do everything by himself, but he's also such a good problem solver. Homeschooling him will be a blast...challenging for me, I'm sure, but he's got a thirsty mind like his oldest brother.