Today was a sad day for our family as we said goodbye to our dog Molly. She was 12 years old and had been with our family for 9 years. She had been suffering from an enlarged heart and it was becoming more & more difficult for her to do basic things. We had blood work done and xrays and they couldn't find anything causing her heart to enlarge other than she was getting old and stuff like that happens. She had a slight infection in her lungs and we bought crazy expensive antibiotics to help with that (which is why the vet thought she had this hack). Well, the hack never went away. She was put on heart medicine, and she continued to get worse and worse. By the last week, she would have to lay down completely on the floor after walking up the stairs from the basement of from walking from her kennel to the house. She was not the dog she wanted to be and it was very hard to see her that way and getting worse every day.
Molly was a dog that would jump up and kiss your mouth (if you let her). She loved to chase squirrels and bunnies in the yard. She loved to wander off and explore the neighborhood (which is why I had to train her to come to a whistle so that I didn't sound like a mad woman yelling for my dog to come home.) She played with our cat Lucy and was afraid of our cat Larry. She let our son crawl all over her and he would laugh when she licked his hand. She loved to play her fetch-chase game. It took us years to get her to just play fetch. She used to love to have us throw a ball/stick for her to fetch and then she would come just close enough & when you would grab for it she would run away and she wanted you to chase her. She used to take branches and peel off the bark. She liked to lay with her back legs extended straight out the back. She loved to gallop in the snow and eat it. She hated rain or any type of running water (we suspect that water was used as punishment when she was young.) She had the stinkiest farts, EVER! She was a happy dog and always looked like she was smiling. We always joked that she was retarded (just as a figure of speech, I know I am not being PC), but she was a good dog.
Our family will miss her, but now she is in doggy heaven and can do all those things she wanted to do these last months but couldn't.
My friend Melanie won this contest from Girlfriends magazine for a free night out with dinner and the ballet with 3 girlfriends. And since I had encouraged her (& all my friends on FB) to enter & if they won - to take me! Well, she won & she did. She invited the other Baby Mamas (it's the name I gave to the group of moms I met in my son's ECFE class & did some summer playgroups with) and two of them were able to come with. 
