Life Goes On

Gong and I and Waylon are missing Annie enormously, and her loss has conjured for us the all-too-recent loss of our beautiful bluetick cross Juliette, who Annie reminded us so much of. And yet we experienced Annie, of course, as completely her own being, a being that somewhat resembled another we used to live with but who possessed a powerful and quiet essence of her very own. This grieving, compounded with re-grieving, has been very complicated for the three of us.

Willow, we feel sure, notices Annie’s absence, though we do not think she understands what happened to her. She has taken to being much more involved with Waylon recently, evidenced by this photo, which shows Willow attempting to ride Waylon, we think.

Waylon, wary of Willow when she first came home and happy to let Annie handle her pokings and proddings, has risen to the occasion of big brother and has become very patient and easygoing with Willow (who, to be fair, has become much less invasive of a dog’s world than she once was, yet who still thinks the dogs’ toys are just as much her playthings as her toys, though Waylon and Annie have always been respectful of Willow’s toys and never tried to play with them themselves). It’s nice to see the burgeoning relationship developing between Willow and Waylon, and to watch how Waylon has begun to trust Willow more, and trust us to make sure that she does not play too roughly with him. He’s such a good boy, our Waylon.

In memoriam: our dear sweet Annie

Annie let us know over the weekend that she was in a lot of pain and we could not stand by and watch her suffer. Yesterday, at around midday, Dr. Shiri Hoshen, who cared deeply for Annie and helped her out so much over the past few months, came over with an assistant and helped Annie pass peacefully. Her pain has ended and for that we are grateful. And yet a hole resides in our hearts and in our home without Annie here to love and be loved by. We can’t believe that she was part of our family for a mere eight and a half months, so deeply did we love her, and so profound an impression did she make upon us.

We are planning a burial service for Annie on Friday. If you knew her and care to write a note for us to read to her when we say our goodbyes we’d be happy to include your thoughts. We know that she had a very positive effect on everybody she met.

The Highs and Lows

As life proceeds we, like everyone else, are hit with wonderful highs and low lows, sometimes all in the same day. Bonnie’s brother Mitchell and his wife Francine came through Santa Fe recently to meet Willow on their way back from Taos and Willow and Mitchell and Francine seemed to enjoy one another’s company heartily. Only days after they left to go back to Montreal, Gong and I learned that our beloved dog Annie might well have bone cancer. She appears to be in a quite a lot of pain but is handling it stoically. We are doing what we can for her but, unfortunately, her prognosis is not good. So far she is still eating well (Gong has been cooking her Angus burgers and turkey meatballs and offering her anything else her heart desires) and appears to still want to be here with us. We will let her tell us what she needs and try our best to honor her wishes.