Farewell, My Friend

We have lost yet another sweet pup. Our last original dog, Roxy, has been missing for a couple of weeks now, so reluctantly, we have called off our search. This makes the 3rd dog that has came and gone since Brock and I have been married (almost 2 years). We're not horrible people, I promise! We love our pets, as evidenced by the closet full of clothes for Sadie and numerous balls and frisbees bought for our outside crew, Mullet and Oliver (that they usually destroy within minutes). I guess bad timing and unusual circumstances led to the demise of the first two dogs we had.

It started with Bella and Roxy, but within a month a relative ran Bella over when pulling into our driveway. My stepdaughter and niece held a nice little "invitation only" funeral for her, complete with freshly picked weeds and a stick to mark her resting spot. As we stood in our finest black dresses in the smoldering Mississippi heat, slapping at chiggers and mosquitos, I had to stifle laughter as the girls sung and led the eulogy. Yes, a eulogy for a DOG. Told you we loved our pets! Now granted, it wasn't a funny occasion by any means, but the sight of the whole extended family standing in the back yard dressed to the nines and holding handmade invitations (because all dog funerals require invitations to be able to attend, of course) would probably have been spectacle to outsiders.

Anyways, Bella was soon replaced by Norie, who died a few months later due to health problems. (Break out the black dress again...) Now Roxy, who has weathered it all, has disappeared, and the only explanation we can come up with is coyotes. *Uhhh* I shudder at the thought. She was such a good dog and was very good to her two remaining puppies that we ended up keeping, so it saddens us that she just vanished. Poor Mullet and Oliver stood on the lookout in the yard for about a week, waiting on her return. They've since recovered and are acting like normal, but they don't venture off too far from the house anymore, thank goodness.

I can't bear the thought of something happening to these two, but with our track record it's not looking good. :( I'm praying our luck will change, though. I'd say that if something happened to them, that we're not getting another outside dog, but I know we will. Animals seem to migrate to our house and never leave! Which reminds me, I need to go take down the huge blinking sign in our yard that reads "Strays welcome here!"...