5 dogs to 2 in two years.

The title says it all - when we were sitting in bed last night, I paused for a moment and thought out loud, "Our three year old yorkie is our largest/oldest dog."

Two years ago, I had five dogs. I lost one through the divorce and my two oldest have now passed on. Chandler lost his battle with complications related to Parvo & an URI yesterday morning - he was 11 and a half years old. He has always been my problem child - a siezure disorder, food allergies, and once Autumn passed away in March 2009 he pretty much began to check out.... yesterday morning he had what appeared to be a stroke and crawled under a thornbush to hide out. I found him, cleaned him up, and realized how bad things were so I spent two hours with him, grooming him and cleaning him up (what a way to spend your first real Mother's Day). Once I got him into the vet, I knew I was making the right decision - my biter simply laid there when the IV port was inserted. I asked R to stay home with Bella as I couldn't have her feeding off my emotions. I held everything together until they flushed his line with a pain killer, I started crying (Chandler, even in his haze, licked my tears away) at which point I lost it. I've seen many, many euthansias being in rescue for ten years and I have never sobbed the way I did yesterday. The vet, thankfully, was understanding since he had been the one who treated my foster puppy who was euthanized two weeks ago and he let me listen to his heart stop beating and allowed me time to cuddle with him before they took him away for cremation.

In a few days, I will have three cherrywood boxes lined up on my shelf in my office waiting for us to officially move. The new house will have three guardian dogs protecting our backyard. It feels right.