Farewell, Crystal

My sweet and handsome Crystal passed away early this morning, sometime between 1:30 and 4:00 am. He's been failing for a while now, but I didn't want to post about it. Yesterday, I could see he was tired and I told him repeatedly I didn't mind taking care of him but it was okay to leave now. So I wasn't surprised to find he was gone when I got up to check on him.

I went back to bed but couldn't sleep, just lay still until the phone rang. My brother is working today. There was no one to help bury Crystal.

As soon as I got off the phone, Buddy had a seizure.

After taking the dogs on a very short walk while wearing a pair of bedroom slippers, I put on the extra large white sneakers I just bought to accommodate my swollen toe in an emergency and dug a grave in the red Georgia clay. The ground is soaked with rainwater, so I was able to manage. Crystal lies beside his old friends Jenny and Grayce.

To make the day even more painful, I walked onto the wet front porch in my socks to knock mud off the shoes. And then I accidentally bumped a large spray bottle off a table. It landed squarely on the infected part of the unprotected toe. I have lost count of the number of traumas to that toe since a week ago Friday. The others have been courtesy of Buddy and Sam. I don't know how I am going to walk the dogs at all now since it is cold and raining and I can only get my foot into a sock.

Between the toe pain and Crystal, losing Crystal hurts the worst How appropriate the day should be cold, wet and dreary. Crystal was a bright spot in my life for 11 years and it's going to take some time to get used to losing him. So if I don't post for a while or answer questions .... Maybe I'll post in a day or two on Crystal, but perhaps not. We'll see.

Although we already did a post earlier today, Crystal's passing rates a special post.