. . . . . . My Life As MaMa: My Molly-Moo

On Saturday, we finally said goodbye to our family dog, Molly. She was 17 years old this spring! She has very literally grown up with our family--my youngest brother was just one year old when she joined us. She was sent, by plane, from my Uncle Everett's farm in Ontario and she was the best dog our family could ever have asked for.

Even with three kids, five piglets and a flock of chicken, she always had energy to spare. She was protective. She would run endless circles around the sand pit while we were playing, always keeping a watchful eye over us. She was smart. She knew exactly how far up the driveway she, and we, were allowed to go. She was loyal--always at my mothers heels and by my fathers side when he whistled. She was happy. She always looked like she was smiling, even in these last few months of her life when just walking along the hardwood floor was a task for her.

I will love her and miss her forever but there is a part of me that is very glad that she was finally put to rest. It's been hard to watch age take its affect on her over the last few years. It started with a bout of vertigo while my dad was away hunting 3 or 4 years ago this fall, and her health has been going downhill since then. Her hips had been giving her trouble for the last couple of years and they finally gave up sometime last week and my parents had resorted to carrying her outside to go to the washroom. Not a good life for any dog, but especially for our Molly who was always so eager to be wherever we were.

Even through all of this, though, she was still so happy. When I got to my parents to say goodbye on Saturday she was still smiling and wagging her tail as I walked over and was smothering me in kisses. I'll miss her freckled nose, the long silky hair behind her ears that she loved have scratched, her big, happy, brown eyes. So it's still hard to know that she's gone.

I don't know if dogs go to heaven, but knowing Molly, it's hard to imagine that there's not something else for her out there somewhere. I'm so glad that we were able to give her such a loving home for so long and will always cherish the memories I have of her. Herding us in the sandbox, camping, swimming in lakes, her puppies, the way she so instinctively knew that Samantha was something special, something to be protected and would sit with her whole head over Sam's belly if she was ever on the floor, even when having her diaper changed.

Molly with my brother John

Off on another camping trip

Sorry this one looks funny--I cut it up to use in an album when I was younger. But, like I said, always smiling.

Fuzzy picture, but she's in her glory, roaming the yard, looking out for us.

Camping with the whole Veddar gang. All of our childhood friends (I'm on the left holding Molly) and Molly's late friends Chief and...sorry, I forget what the Wildemann's dogs name was...