the first farewell of the summer...

for sasha

run on sand and
swim in sea,
your spirit is now set free.

you were a good and loyal friend. the best.

rest in peace.

i had the most heartbreaking event to deal with this morning...while taking care of some cleaning on our side yard, anthony turned towards the pool and alerted me to our dog sasha's lifeless body floating in our pool. anthony was too shocked to move and i had to run to pull sasha from the water. apparently sasha had fallen in and drowned during the night, too old and too weak to get to the shallow end. ironically, he was a very strong swimmer and loved the water in his younger days. i suppose it's been a while since he'd seen his younger days.

anywaterygrave, i bawled for a good two hours just sitting with him in the middle of the backyard trying to let the sun warm his cold, rigor-stiff body. all i could think was that it wasn't supposed to happen this way. no one should die alone, not even a dog.

anthony, andrew and i had just been discussing on monday that we would take sasha to be put down sometime between this week and next weekend. we wanted him to know that we were there when he took his last breath. unfortunately, life just happens. there are things that you just can't plan; so, we couldn't give him the send off that we hoped for. but we have something special planned that we know he would have loved. when we get his ashes back next week, we will be taking his ashes with us and our other dogs on a camping trip to the coast and let the wind take the ashes out to sea. sasha really would have loved it.

well, i really didn't want to have my first post in a week to be such a bummer but i believe sasha knew we were having a difficult time trying to figure out when to put him down and as unfortunate as his last day was it finally put an end to his suffering and our anguish. had he lived to father's day, he would have been with us for 18 years. that in and of itself was more than we could have ever hoped for. he was an awesome dog and a true part of our family.

anyway, i also wanted to say thanks to a whole bunch of you all out there that have given me the strength to put this sad news out there. it's made me feel a lot better to not have to let the sadness just fester within. anthony, andrew and i have been supporting each other of course, but just knowing that i have my blog buddies are out there for additional support is so great. so thanks again!

but before you leave, let me remind you...

“Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.”

-unknown

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