An anniversary remembered

One year ago, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I had to have my beloved dog Zoe euthanized. She was 15 1/2 years old--a great old dog who had for the first time not risen to greet me when we'd returned home on Thanksgiving evening. I knew then she was truly not feeling well. Despite my prayers, no rally back to her old self happened over the next couple days, and I had to make the impossibly tough call to have the vet come to the house on Sunday.

She was a once-in-a-lifetime dog. I know without any doubt that this animal would have laid down her life for me without a second's hesitation. Found abandoned on the side of the road as a puppy, all the vet could tell me was that she was likely half pit bull and that I might not want to keep her. No dog could have loved more than this dog did. She looked kind of like a chihuahua on steroids. Even at the very senior age of 11 (and later at 13), she accepted my babies when they came home from the hospital as her own. She was smart and sweet and special beyond words. My other dog, Teejay (a.k.a. Tiggly, also a roadside find), her compadre and a gentle and wonderful lovable dog in her own right, went over the rainbow bridge more than a year earlier than my old "Zo Zo." I hope they greeted each other with much tail wagging and happy yipping when Zoe finally arrived. I hope they are both there waiting for me when my days are done.