Chapter 2 page 220 - sadness

First, I wanted to thank you all for your kind blog comments and in-person hugs and comments. You all have been very supportive and that's been beyond touching.

Second, my 13.5 year old beagle had surgery last Thursday to repair her ACL. She wasn't yet putting weight on her leg and at some point in the last week she had a stroke leading to kidney failure and blindness. We made the painful decision to have her put to sleep this past Wednesday morning. Before I met my husband it was just Hoosier and I. I'm an only child and I adopted her shortly after I moved 1400 miles away from my family following college to begin my first "grown up" job as a middle school teacher. I named her Hoosier because I was pretty homesick for IN when I got her (not because I'm a big IU fan). She and I lived in VA for 7 years and then lived together in IN for 3 years before my husband came into the picture. She and my husband became QUICK friends. He treated her like a princess - it was really sweet to watch them become so close. If you don't have pets then I'm sure you are probably rolling your eyes and thinking this is all just too dramatic I'm sorry. I've come along way since leaving the vet's office on Wednesday morning and I am grateful for the couple of days I've had to reflect on our life together.

Here is one of my favorite photos of Hoosier - it was taken on 12/24/10 while we all enjoyed Christmas Eve at my parents house - just 6 days before she hurt her leg which ultimately led to the surgery and all the down hill from there.



No doubt I'll continue to miss her . . .

Thanks for letting me share a little of her with you.

I'll be back on Monday with the start of our 3rd half marathon training cycle so I'm sure there will blog posts galore. Hope you'll continue to join me on the journey to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th half marathons this year!!!

God bless - take care and have wonderful weekend!!!!!