RIP Perry 1993-2010

River has kindly allowed me to post about Perry.

We lost Perry yesterday. He was 17.

Fifteen years ago I got a call from SOS Beagles about a dog that a man was threatening to shoot. His dog would not hunt--sounds like a joke but in the South that is a serious canine crime. Poor Perry. He was always a bit of a shrinking violet. I picked him up, intending to foster. I adopted him out once but it didn't work out. I didn't want him to suffer another big change like that so I kept him.

Last Wednesday he started throwing up and refused to eat--always a horror with hounds who dearly love food. He spent the next day at the vet's getting fluids and when I picked him up he was feeling so much better. But he went downhill again immediately.

Almost all of my beagles have died of kidney failure--beagles are so healthy in general but they are prone to cataracts, neck problems and kidney problems in old age. Sometimes it's been chronic, sometimes I have only days to say goodbye.

I kept him with me in the bed all Friday night then we sat out on the back deck in the sun Saturday morning. This is the way I like to say goodbye--to share our last moments together in the sun. And I am so grateful when I have a chance to do exactly that.

He will be remembered for his soft and staccato aroo!aroo!aroo! when he wanted attention or his dinner. A gentle and shy boy who will be greatly missed by his family.

Run free, sweet Perry Berry. One day we will meet again, thank goodness.

Long hot summer!

Will it never end?? This heat is terrible and it still promises to melt sneakers the rest of the week. Look at this dry yard. No mom needs to mow for a long time here.

Hi Everydoggie! We have been busy--my Mom was on vacation.

She went to visit her brother in Wisconsin and my cousins.
Shiloh who just turned one:

and Cesar who is now two:

My mom says they are very nice animals, extremely well-bred.

She visited the Biodomes:

One dome is a desert, one is tropical, one is a riverbank garden

Here's a picture of a river where my mom went to a German festival:

And look who we had come visit. This beautiful red dobie. He was such a total goofball that my mom called him Wall-EEE. And guess what??!! We found his family! He was picked up running back & forth across a highway where he would have died. He escaped their yard one day and they put up millions of color flyers for him. They gave the rescue a nice reward but the best part was finding his family.

Here I am in the hot, dry backyard.

Here is our old Miss Daisy. She will be 21 this October. My mom admits she is looking kinda ragged. The vet just diagnosed her with glaucoma and she is now blind. She gets eyedrops and tramadol. We didn't know that glaucoma can be like a migraine so we are keeping her painfree. There aren't many options for her, we are sad to say, and we are holding her close as long as we can.

Here I am inside. Whew! It's a little cooler. We can't wait for fall!