All Dogs Go To Heaven: Part 2

As you know we about a month ago we lost our lab Gracie.  We knew Sam would be heart broken without her.  We were afraid he would go downhill fast and we were right.  31 days after he lost his best friend, Sam passed away.  It was heart breaking to lose him but it was also heart breaking watching him mope around without her.  When he realized she wasn't coming home he quit eating.  He would eat bread or scraps but he wouldn't eat much else.  He didn't want to go outside.  He just laid by the garage door.  He didn't get excited when we came home.  He was just there.  You could just tell he was heart broken.  It was pitiful.

Patrick had Sam before we got married and he was the best dog.  You could just open the garage door and he went straight to the fence.  He didn't get out of the fence and if he did he just went to the front and sat on the front porch.  He was the best guard dog.  He never barked and if he did you'd better get up and see what was going on.  He was huge! When Gracie had her puppies he was a nervous wreck.  We had to make him sleep outside because he made her so nervous.  He was so sweet with her and the babies. He didn't like hot weather at all.  In the heat of the summer, when you opened the door for him to go out if it was too hot he would just look at you like you had lost your mind if you thought he was going out. He loved the lake too.  He didn't get to go as many times as Gracie.  He would swim and swim until he could barely walk he was so worn out.  Then he drag himself up to the deck (or where ever the most people were gathered) and shake of all the water.  As you can imagine, no one enjoyed that.  I will miss his sweet face that was always happy to see me. In his younger days he would chase a tennis ball for hours.  In his later years he would chase it once and then look at you like you're an idiot if you though he was going after it again.  He loved us fiercely.  He was the definition of loyal.  He was the best dog.  I'm sad that Barrett wont remember what a great dog he was.  We miss him and Gracie so much.  But life goes on.  We hold on to all the memories we made together and we're comforted that they didn't have to live long without each other. 

Dog weekend at the Lake

We had a nice weekend at the lake with my little brother, his soon to be wife and 5 dogs.  I love taking our two labs to the lake because they love it. It's so hard when we have a full house of people to add 2 hundred pound dogs, so we planned a low key weekend just the 5 of us and our dogs.  We were loaded down in my pilot.  We had to put the dogs in the very back, we put Barrett in and the piled stuff around him.  It was a lot of work but so worth it.

 

This was Barrett's second trip to the lake but first time to swim and he looked adorable!

In our hats ready for the water.

 

He was not to excited about the water.  I think he might have enjoyed more if I'd spent more than $3 on him a float.  It was crappy and I was afraid he was going to fall out it.

Here we are dodging the dogs chasing tennis balls.  They played fetch forever.  They had a ball.

My sweet (old) girl.  This is her spot on the deck.  It's completely in the way but she likes to keep an eye on everything.

This girl didn't really know what to think with her big brother and sister there.  She did manage to roll around in the dirt and get extra dirty!

I think this boy had the most fun out of all of us.

My boys.

He fell asleep waiting on dinner.

I love this picture of Patrick and Barrett snuggling one morning.  So sweet!

 

I thought it would be fun to get a family picture of the three of us and the three dogs.  Yes, i'm crazy.  This was the best one!

Packed up and headed home.    It was a nice relaxing weekend.  We enjoyed getting spend time with John and Hope.  John has grown up so much in the last few years and I love hearing him talk about life.  He's embarking on the start to the rest of his life. Graduating college, starting his career and getting married.   I remember the excitement I felt when I was in that stage of life and I love seeing it again through his eyes. I'm so proud of him.