Blog Time!

***Bernie's favorite spot east of the Mississippi, watching and listening to the world. April, 2007***

I haven't really put any of Bernie's stuff away. The day I came home from the vet, a week ago today, I did throw away her bag of dog food and some other soft-food creations I'd come up with to make sure she ate. She hadn't eaten straight-up kibble in a few months. The night before, we'd gone to Petco to get some soft food types, so they're still sitting on a pantry cabinet. I'll give them to the humane society or some such place. Everything else, though, is still around. Her food bowl is on the floor in my bedroom, in its nighttime spot, her upstairs water bowl in its spot. The water has almost all evaporated. Her two beds, one upstairs and one downstairs, are in place. I have no plans of putting any of that away, it's fine where it is. Her two water bowls downstairs are in place, though I will move those eventually. I haven't vacuumed yet, which means there's a bunch of dog hair still on the floor. I have no emotional tie to that, I just don't vacuum often. Besides, there will always be Bernie fur in this house no matter what I do! Her treats are still here, in place. I'll gradually hand them out to the many dogs who walk by my house--I live on a corner. Most everything is in its place, except for my big black furry buddy.

Our mailman has left a bone for Bernie every day since we moved here, seven years ago. I have a mail slot in my front door, so he'd drop a bone in with the mail. The first thing Bernie and I would do when I got home in the evening was go get the mail. "Bernie wanna go get the mail?!?" Off we'd run to the porch. She'd rifle through the post, finding the bone and often tossing it around a bit. We loved getting the mail. So last Friday, the day after the day after, I stuck a cute little note from Bernie to the mailman on the door, thanking him and informing him of her new residence. There was no bone that day, so I figured he saw it. But then there was a bone on Saturday, so he must have been off the day I left the note. So anyway, I finally got around to leaving another note, on Tuesday, and came home to no bone and no note. My hunch and hope is he saw and took the note as a keepsake, it was a nice goodbye from a nice dog.