a few days after Christmas 2003 Hello old friend

a few days after Christmas 2008 Goodbye old friend

Rosie and Lucky

Morgan and Lucky

having a cowboy cookout in the driveway Roscoe and Rosie

It is 2 days past the parting of our dear old friend "Lucky" - the biggest, fattest, most noble, gruntable, kissable, huggable , protector of our little farm. Lucky came to us on a cold winter's day with bleeding legs and a shrunken belly a few days after Christmas. We had seen him before, digging in the trash, catching him just before dawn running away like a wild animal. He was a handsome pure bred, had a nice blue collar on him. surely he belonged to someone!

Then one day, just after an upsetting family Christmas, he appeared at our house in the early am as usual, looking for food. This time he was closer to the house and didn't run away when i talked to him. I could see his legs were raw and bleeding and as i talked sweetly to him he dropped his big boy ways and came to me. i invited him in for a bowl of food and a warm up by the fire...the rest is history. The top photo was taken then...he literally bee lined to Rosie like a long lost lover, parked it infront of the fire and stayed for 5 years.

After a long search and neighbor interrogation we learned he'd been dumped. No one wanted him and in fact he was scheduled to be executed that day by the evangelical ranch down the way. nice. anyways..don't get me started...he became our boy, thyroid problem and all...his tag actually read "LUCKY" .

That summer i lost my first born ...a blue heeler named Schnooey Hutz (don't ask) and experienced my first euthanasia. to make a long story not so long...i lost it. the tears came and wouldn't stop...all the events that had passed through me in those years, the dreams i had bundled up in his ranchy little form..the farm, the babies, the husband, the committment to growing up and staying put, growing a family, losing my grandmother, my best friend, and others....it all came out...and who was there to hold me up and soak my sadness...LUCKY.

He was a soaker ...he let the babies crawl on him, pull his eyelashes, let new puppies and kitties jump on his face...and never let an iota of bad ass outa him...and yet, when the other neighbor's pit bulls (2 of em!) attacked he took em! had 2 very expensive surgeries to repair his mangled ear...and still let my son pretend to be a dog and eat from his bowl. (i know...cooties)

Besides all the above..the deep sadness that fill me has a question: "Who was inside that big furry body anyways??" I knew Lucky with every fiber in my body...and boy did he know Rosie.

I am inviting a comment discussion on what everyone thinks about animals and spirits . He feels just as important as anyone i have loved and been loved by. A few days after Christmas this year we all sat with him, laid our hand on him, petting and weeping as he slipped off to sleep in front of the fire, the same exact spot he had claimed years before. A long lost wayfarer who spent his whole life just trying to get here...where he will stay ....forever.

xo milady