Beautiful Tia

When Matthew was little, our cat Grady died. T​rying to understand, he asked “Grady not going to move any more Mama?” I thought that was a good description, at least for a little kid. We laid Tia to rest last Saturday. It was clear she had become uncomfortable, so we had a wonderful vet – Dr. Elizabeth Benson come to the house. It was so peaceful. Tia was at home, on her own bed, with us​ right there with her. When we finished burying her by the cats at the bottom of the yard, we looked out and there were 6 turtles by the lake, seemingly watching.

Dr. Benson said Tia was incredibly strong to have lasted this long. The week before, when we found out about her cancer and heart condition & that it​was drastic​, the vets gave her a day or so to live. She made it 9 days! And she had some good times, walking down to the lake, getting lots of attention, wagging her tail, enjoying hand-fed leg of lamb, organic chicken livers seared in coconut oil, etc. We are heartbroken – we’d had her since she was 1 and Matthew was 5. It was a shock too – she’d seemed so ​healthy, running around the hills with us just 3 weeks before. ​ What a wonderful 12 years she gave us – the best dog we could have hoped for. So many people loved her! She was such a comfort to my dad in his last years – those 2 were thick as thieves. And she had visits from some of her friends during ​that last week – Robin, Kat Wolfe, Maura, Enicia, Kristin, Katherine.

This was a dog who was so well-behaved, she really didn’t even need a leash when out in public. (She wore the leash mostly for show.) She would do what I asked with a hand signal or a word. She wouldn’t come out the front door without her release word, even if you called her. ​I’m grateful to all of you who’ve been so kind & understanding