Nighty Night, Cassidy

Cassidy, our "old lady" dog passed away yesterday morning on the floor in our bedroom. She had been slowing down the past few months, becoming incontinent and just overall not her usual self.  She was almost 14 years old - we knew it was coming and had prepared Emma for it. I was at 35,000 feet flying home from a wedding when it happened. Daddy can document it better, but the jist is, Monday night she ate dinner as her usual hungry champion self at 7:30pm. At 10:30 when Daddy tried to take both dogs for a walk, Cass had trouble standing, then simply laid down in the foyer as if to say I'm done. Daddy carried her down the steps to go to the bathroom and she laid down in the grass, too. She whined sadly most of the night. Daddy's hands were tied with rushing her to the vet as the kids were sleeping and I was not home. We had already agreed on a "DNR" for her anyway... Tuesday morning, Emma woke up and saw Cass laying sadly on the floor. She offered her a pillow to make her labored breathing more comfortable and it actually seemed to help! 30 minutes later she was gone, joining the energy all our family previously departed up in the Universe.

Ben has been completely oblivious that Cassidy is no longer following him around trying to eat his food off his plate. Emma? Well, she's an interesting gal.  As we had been prepping her that Cass was indeed going to leave us at some near point in time, she was sad for about 12 seconds, then asked when she was going to get a "blue fish" - something she had previously asked for as a replacement for Cassidy! She did ask me where Cass went - I reminded her that she was now with "Reddy Red" (our beta that died last Summer) and Heavenly Father up in the sky. She told me Cass was going to be real happy jumping around on the clouds and I told her the next clear night we have, we can sneak outside and look for her star in the sky (ala - Ray, the lightening bug from The Princess and the Frog).

This morning when I dropped at school she was crying pretty hard. She said she just wanted to stay home with me and snuggle on the couch (I was gone for almost 5 days!), but part of me is sure she is sensing there is something missing in our family and she needed hugs to fill the void.  That being said, when I picked her up from school she raced to the Dragon Hill with the kids to play happy as usual and even told her pal, Molly, as they were rolling down the hill that her dog died - matter of fact, no tears in sight.

Here's to you Cass. You came with Daddy into our relationship. You witnessed our first kiss. You didn't complain (too much) when you lost your space in Daddy's bed to me. You were the "witness" at Daddy's bended knee proposal to me ("with Dog as my witness, will you marry me?"), you were first to sniff both of our babies the day they came home from the hospital. While, as everyone knows,  I am not necessarily a "dog person", you were the softest dog ever with the sweetest face and I know how much you loved being a part of our family and we will always love you.

At the very start of our Family - January 2006.

Sleeping with Dodo and Emma as a newborn.