Saying goodbye

It has taken me two months to be able to write this post. Over the years I have come to understand that there are pet people and non pet people. We are pet people, more specifically dog people and even more specifically English Bulldog people. The first night Katie met our family her impression was that we were a nice enough family but we loved our dogs WAY too much. That sums us up pretty well so when we lose one of them it hurts. Just before Christmas we had to put Brutus down. Anyone who knows Brutus knows that he was a bit psycho. He was definitely a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide. He was one of the funniest and most loving dogs we have ever had but at the same time he could turn in a heartbeat and snap for no reason. At one time or another we have all been bit by him but we all accepted that that was life with Bru. We dealt with it because it was such a small part of him and the rest made up for it. However, as the numbers in the house increased he got more touchy and unpredictable. Having a baby in the house we just could not risk anymore problems and since he has a bite history we had to put him down. So here we are two months later finally able to say goodbye without completly breaking into sobs (just a few tears now). We miss his happy dance when we walk in the door, his soulful eyes as he silently plead for attention, his pushing himself between Joe & I or Brian & Katie on the couch, his mischieveousness as he dumped the toy box all over the floor to find his favorite ball, his invitation to play bow, his thinking he was a lap dog and plopping himself on us to watch tv, but most of all we miss his company. He brought lots of love and laughter into our lives and we miss that.