The Final Walkabout

It has taken me a little while to be able to write about Betty. I miss her, I keep spying her out of the corner of my eye, in nearly every room. I even heard her for the first week and would reach down absent mindedly to stroke her head. She has been gone for three weeks now. It only took us an hour to see the huge puzzle piece that was newly missing from our life. She was a large part of our daily living, especially at the end when she needed so much medical care. I selfishly think to myself that I could have gone on cleaning, disinfecting, wrapping, and praying for her. But Betty couldn't have, she was miserable enough at the end.

She took one long walk about around the yard with all of us, people and pups. She explored the watermelon bed, crunched through the falling leaves, rooted her nose into Bella's legs to move her along. She stopped by Alex's heels, licked a hello and wandered on. She followed Penny and walked shoulder to shoulder with Archie.  She drifted into Casey hand and rub. She kept her face down to the ground, inhaling all the scents that make up our home.

I like to think of her in that last hour on her walk about around the yard, instead of the true last hour of her life. She went blessedly quick, with my arms wrapped around her and Casey and Alex's kisses lingering on her head.

She is truely and deeply missed.