Missing her

I have a story to tell. One that I haven't been ready to tell yet. Until yesterday, when I wrote about the change in our back yard.  It's not the yard I want to talk about though. It's this girl:

 My sweet Alley!

We had to put her down late one night in August of 2009. Her health had been going down hill for a a long time. She was starting to have a hard time walking. Her hips were just getting too old to support her. And finally, in the end, she just couldn't walk. She was in a lot of pain and we knew what we had to do.

Alley was a giver, she wanted nothing more than to please us. And she did. She was a very kind and loyal member of our family.

 One afternoon, we found Alley outside unable to move her hind end. She just laid there looking at us with the same loving eyes that she always had. We were very scared and upset and weren't sure what to do. We put her on a blanket and carried her inside where we gave her an asprin. In no time at all, she was up and wagging her tail and following us around the house like normal. We thought maybe she had pinched a nerve or something and the asprin relieved the pain enough to heal. Then, by the following Sunday night, it happened again. This time though she was in a lot of pain. She could not move her back legs at all. She tried to get up and just couldn't do it. We couldn't watch her suffer like that so we called the vet.

 Our vet lives in Las Vegas and tried to talk us into waiting until morning. But we just couldn't do it. She was in too much pain. Finally, he agreed to come.

 We called Anthony and Kaylynn and they both met us at the vets office to say goodbye. Chad and I were holding her as she went to sleep.

 We miss our Alley so much. I heard some strange noises in the kitchen the other night. Chad told me it was Alley. I believe him.

Change

It's everywhere. We can't get away from it. Even things that stay the same...change.

I really noticed it in this picture of our back yard on Thanksgiving in 2008. There was no grass, just dirt. Also, you can't see in the picture, but our beloved Alley was back there, somewhere.

 The most noticeable change in this picture that I took today, is the grass. We finally got it to come in this summer. It still has weeds and bare spots, but it's grass. The shrubs have also grown a lot since 2008. We have 3 trees back there along the fence now. We didn't plant them, the shrubs did. We noticed them sprouting up in the spring of last year. They are kind of hard to see right now because all the leaves have fallen off for the winter. But they're there. And you wouldn't know it from this picture, but our beloved Alley is not back there...anywhere.

 By the way...Now that it's been pointed out to me. I'm going to try to change the path I walk every morning to feed the horses. I'm still sleeping that early. What can I say?