Last photo of me doing what I have loved, being outside looking around with one good eye

Doggie Heaven, here I come...today's my day...

Yesterday was a good day.  We went to Poop Park, my MMM helped me find good spots to bury my chicken drummies,  I had ice cream three times for the sake of THE DREADED PILL, we played with my snake, my Tiger Woods (stuffed tiger), my Ya Ba Da Ba Doo (stuffed Fred Flintstone), and I ate a little eggs and bacon, fed to me by my MMM, who stayed at my side every minute.

It was a a usual day with all its familiar comforts, distractions and love. My DDD came home early, played with me, let me lick his hand for quite awhile (some kind of dominance thing they say).  I coughed a little more than usual and later heard my MMM on the phone to Ricky, my human brother, saying that time was getting closer. 

I've tried not to be scared.  Only a few things have scared me.  There's one of those smoke detector things in the ceiling outside our bedroom door and once a year it goes off in the middle of night (go figure) and this woman's computer voice says, "low battery,"  "low battery,"  "low battery."  That scares me to death.  I usually get real close to my MMM in bed and she lifts the covers so I can "go under." 

One day she and I were playing on the floor and she looked at me and said in a computer voice "low battery" and I ran under the bed.  Humans sometimes tease us dogs.  She later apologized for doing that.  My parents don't usually tease me but my reaction was so funny to her she couldn't resist.  It was just the one time, though and I forgave her.  I have teased her endlessly by ignoring her when she came outside calling my name.  Oh, I knew she was calling me but I thought it was funny to ignore her.

Around 10:30 last night we went to bed.  About 15 minutes after laying down, I coughed and coughed and coughed.  She gave me more of THE DREADED PILL around 1:30 am.  I coughed all night long keeping us all awake.  They rubbed my belly gently, gave me a massage, whispered how much they love me and did one of my favorites:  "twirl this ear, twirl this ear, twirl both ears."  My brother Ben liked the ear twirly thing too.  Ben, I'll see you soon!  I'm almost there!

My MMM and my DDD had said that they would call the pet equivalent of Dr. Kevorkian, Dr. Rebecca who comes to the home, when I let them know it was time for me to go. As we all lay in a little pile in our bed last night, my coughing out of control, we all knew the time had come.  I had let them know just like they knew I would.

We wearily got out of bed this morning, eyes glassy and puffy over with all the tears during the night.  We had eggs and bacon (I spit out THE DREADED PILL.  She put it in ice cream which I gulped down). This morning she gave me another chicken drummie, I buried it in Bella and Buster's yard.

She called Dr. Rebecca who will this afternoon, only a few hours from now. 

I am a little scared.  Will it hurt?  I know they will cry buts it OK.  I will cry too.  Its been a great life, filled with enormous amounts of love, fun, toys, humans and dogs. The daily routines made it especially happy, the home cooked meals, the special treats, the bucket of toys in my DDD's closet, the surprises from the store or her trip to a garage sale for more toys, an occasional m...o...u...s...e, the spelling, the visits with the little kids, the rides in the car and the tablespoon of i...c...e......c...r...e...a...m every night.

And then, there were the special occasions; the 4th of July when I sat on my MMM's lap while she watched fireworks.  I wasn't scared 'cause they were with me; Christmas and all my gifts, neatly wrapped under the tree; the round trip road trip to Las Vegas when I learned to knock on the car door when I had to go potty and the fact that they always stopped right away;  the time spent with Ricky and Monty; leftover Thanksgiving turkey;  the trips to Petco; watching the bobber while fishing off the dock in the summer and scaling my own fish with my paws and nose; my family, the grownups and the little kids; my aunts who love me show much; and all the dogs who visited, near and far, here and gone.  I loved it all.

Thank you, my MMM and my DDD, for loving me unconditionally and patiently and for taking such good care of me always and, especially when the end came near when I needed you so much. Thank you for not making me go one day too early even though it was so hard for you.   Hopefully, one day we will discover that Doggie (and other pets) and Human Heaven are one and we will all be together once again.  I love you.

P.S.  My MMM will write here for me tomorrow since I won't be here.