"Goodbye, Lady."

Most of my pet memories are sad ones. There's the gray and white striped kitten we had when I was in junior high that we found squashed on the road as we were walking to school. There was the Teddy Bear hamster that was "roasted" in his plastic cage because he was left in the sun by the living room window. There was Petey the bird who, well, I don't really remember what happened to Petey, but he's dead. I don't think any of those memories come close to the day we gave Lady away. We had talked about it as a family and had decided that we just couldn't make the commitment we needed to make to keep her happy (and in the YARD!) She was quite a fence climber as I recall. Anyway, the day the farmer came to get her Josh, Dustin, and Manda were outside playing. The farmer had taken her dishes, food, and favorite toys and loaded them in his pickup. Then he came back to the house for Lady. He asked us to bring the kids in so they wouldn't see him take their pet away. Bob said, "We've talked about this. They'll be fine," and as the man led Lady away by her collar I bawled my head off! See, I'm getting teary even as I write and remember. Lady was a good dog; she went to a good home. Now what I don't understand is why did we get Copper if we couldn't handle Lady? Ah, Copper....now THOSE are some fun memories....