well that was depressing

i was driving home with my mom after work and the rain never stopped falling. i think i tried calling my brother back about 5 times with no answer, he was at his swim meet. i had planned to drop my mom off at home and goto the meet and volunteer as a timer but family crisis stepped in. as i was pulling into the end of my driveway, i looked towards the doghouse, and through the rain i could barely make out the brown lump under the tree. my first thought was that it was my dog, skippy, she has a heart problem (tumor and her heart is starting to skip beats). I looked again and thought it was too small to be her. too bad it was. she wasn't breathing and was a soggy wet mess strewn out under a tree.

my mom and i ran over and started shaking her. slowly after what seemed like the longest minutes ever, she looked up with those sad eyes and i knew she was done. normally i would toss it to her being a bit on the slowside and fell asleep in the rain, but not this time, she didn't even have the energy to get up.

i've had this dog since i moved to jacksonville. 15 years, with us through the move from the beach to arlington, she's almost my brothers age, kind of scary. i was going to leave her there and wait for the rain to stop, i really didn't know what to do. my mom bent over and picked her up (this irish setter is a big dog) and carried her into the garage. for the next half an hour we dried her off and she must have drank a bucket full of water. i suspect heart attack, my dad says pneumonia and dehydration. i hope she makes it through the night.