More on Pups

Last week Ellen took Missy to the vet and found out that she had stage three cancer. For a long time now Missy has given me the willys. She always seemed kind of sickly and was very unsteady. She also licked the sofa a lot and I really hated that. But despite these things, she was the sweetest of sweet pups and only wanted to sit with you and be pat on the head. Ellen adopted Missy late in her dog life and she spent the last few years bravely venturing around town with Ellen, most notably out to and accidentally over the edge of our beloved family dock. She liked it out there once the fear wore off.

After some difficult mulling, Ellie elected to have Missy put to sleep Saturday morning. Missy was given about six weeks but hadn't been eating and still managed to hurl up goop and other things that send ninnies like myself running for cover. No one wants a pup to suffer and it's so hard to know how they really feel. So Belly and Missy came over one afternoon last week to have their picture made together. It was no shock to me that Ellen photographed like a dream - even on the verge of tears. Mom and I often marvel at how photogenic she is in general, let alone compared to the two of us drooling buffoons leering at a camera. I think Mom is beautiful and I do think she's a little hard on herself but I understand and support her aversion to having her picture taken. After the Horse Incident of 2006 I dared not have my photo made for five years but that's a tale for another day. But Ellen can saunter out into harsh daylight sun in a saggy grey T-shirt and her photos will look like stock pages for picture frames. I kills me a little.

I brought mopey Ellen inside with me while I uploaded the photos to my computer and Ellen was pleased by the pictures - particularly the third one down that we called "The Money Shot" where Missy looks as delighted by the day as Ellen does. Then there was few minutes where Ellen forgot her woes and mulled over various filters and captions for assorted social media feeds. I wondered if this was all a ruse for some updated headshots and I glared at her on her glowing cellphone and then looked down at Missy who was curled up silently by our feet. But that was a false alarm because once she set her phone down and looked at Missy, welp she cried. Poor gal.

Saturday morning after Missy's appointment, Ellen came over to Mom and Dad's house where I was working on some wedding florals and Brett was scampering around loading my car and feeding me breakfast to make sure I had some Wedding Day Fuel. Ellen came into the house with her puffy, bright blue, teary eyes and really brought the mood down. I think Ellen used it as an excuse to get lots of Brett-hugs. Brett-hugs make everything better.