The End Of Our Brightest Chapter

You wouldn't be surprised to learn that carting around a 200-lb. dog can be cumbersome. Making such a big boy clamber in-and-out of an SUV can take a while and always looks mildly ridiculous... But, you might be surprised to learn that when you own a mastiff, you happily ignore such challenges and take him with you EVERYWHERE. That's what we did with Owen. We brought him to the coffeeshop, to Home Depot, to restaurants, to the grocery store, to Carmel-by-the-Sea, to the top of Mount Diablo: basically, whenever we hopped in the car, our bosom companion joined us, panting and farting and drooling with quiet joy. Such a perfect dog.

Long time readers will remember Owen from the "funny" post and the "not so funny" post. This will be the last post.

On Friday, Sept. 2, we realized that Owen's degenerative bone disorder was making life too difficult; to keep him alive any longer would have been selfishness. He was in pain, and no amount of surgery would make him better. He was just 2.5 years old, a baby - our big, hairy baby.

It's hard to write with any eloquence about this subject. To write about how we rattle around the house ... about how we tested a score of different wind-chimes before we found a deep, resonant tone that will remind us of his huge soul with every breeze ...

It all sounds silly; such fuss over a dog. In fact, it is quite easy and rational to step back and say, "Thank God our family is healthy... and imagine what the people in New Orleans are going through, with Hurricane Katrina ..." It's all relative, I guess. For now, for a while, this is the pain that is closest to us, and we're just muddling through ...

Farewell, old friend.