This is my wonderful Black Lab, Ursa:
I had to put her to sleep yesterday and I am totally grief-stricken. She was diagnosed with a spinal tumor which finally pressed on a nerve and caused her incredible pain. I think she was in pain for a long time, but never let on.
She was my best friend an absolutely wonderful dog--so smart and loving and playful. She took such care of me when I had my brainwreck headaches--laid in the bed with me with her head on my waist or feet when I was curled up in fetal position and crying. She slept in the bed with me and Dr Love most of the time, especially in the winter. She loved living on the river and loved to swim and got to do it almost every day.
She was incredible with the grandbabies--even when they were infants, she like to curl up next to them. Thing 1's favorite thing was to give her a full body huggle and just lay on top of her with his arms around her neck. I taught him how to roll her a tennis ball and watch her kick it back. Thing 2 just squeals with delight and reaches for her when she's around him.
She has this game she plays all by herself called "Puppy Soccer" where she has two tennis balls, one in the mouth, and the other she kicks around the house until it rolls under a piece of furniture, then she comes up to one of us and just looks at us with big Lab Eyes until we get the retrieval stick and get it out. There must be two dozen tennis balls under different pieces of furniture in our house. I think I'll just leave them there for a while.
Anyway, thanks for reading this--I may be a little quiet on the forum for a while until I do a little healing over this--it was quite unexpected and has thrown me for quite a loop.
I know Ursa is in puppy heaven right now chasing bunnies and kicking around a tennis ball.
Captain Deb
