Sad week....

Football's over.  They lost their first playoff game, but did so well being 6 and 1 for the season.  So while I'm sad to not watch Chase tackle anyone anymore, it's nice for life to calm down a bit.

Cole tried out for basketball, but only being 5'4" at 13 is not tall enough to make a competitive junior high team.  I'm very sad for him since this was the only sport he was interested in that his cardiologist would allow him to play.  I'm hoping he'll find peace with it.

The worst part of the week, and by far the most sad, was the loss of our lab Butter.  He came to us from the local pound in June and has been the favorite dog to me and the kids.  He was a wonderful dog and so much fun.  He was so well behaved at 3 years old.  He didn't jump and go crazy.  He loved to be pet and lay with the kittens.  He LOVED to play frisbie and catch balls and sticks the kids threw.  He was hilarious sometimes.  He would run and roll over because he tripped over himself or run into things as he ran.  He reminded me of Chance in the Incredible Journey.  Just a great, great dog.  But, we came home to find him laying across the street.  He obviously had drug himself over to where he was and his back legs were paralyzed, so he did it all with his front.  He was bleeding everywhere and we could tell he had been completely run over on his whole back side.  The person who hit him didn't hit him.  They ran over him.  There's no way they couldn't have known what happened after running over an 80 lb lab.  And since our road is dead end they had to have been driving way too fast which makes it all the worse.  No one has called or let us know they did it.  He has tags and everything and nothing.  They just did it so callously.  We called the vet and got him there, but after taking xrays he found that his pelvis was fractured so badly it had pierced his colon and he was bleeding out.  We had to let the vet put him down so he could go in peace.

We tried to reinforce to the boys that we did everything possible.  The vet didn't know of anyone who would have a decent chance of saving him.  He said there was truly nothing we could do.  We told the boys we had to accept it.  Chase said his goodbye after they brought him back home.  He couldn't bear to bury him.  Cole didn't go with them to the vet because he was afraid it was this bad, but I talked him into helping his dad bury him so he could have some closure and say goodbye.  They each had a cup of hot chocolate and we talked and hugged and cried.  Jaemin still goes to the door calling for Butter.  They both seem a little better this morning, but it's going to hit them again when they go outside to play after school and he's not there to play with.  I miss him not walking to the mailbox with me or going on our walk down the road with us.  I miss him not scratching on our door for attention.  I miss not seeing him lying in the sun, warming himself or sitting with the kittens.  I miss Butter.  How can you replace such a great dog!