PS to pet loss

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We planted a miniature rose bush on the dog's grave last summer and 
on Thursday I picked the one rose bud on the bush. Yesterday it 
opened into full bloom. The roses are the most delicate peach colour 
tinged with lemon and they have a faint but distinct scent. The name 
of the variety is 'sweet dream' and the friend who gave it to me 
said it was a peach for a peach. It is sentimental perhaps but to 
see this one rose blooming so perfectly over these two days has felt 
like a gift.

Thanks to Penny and Sheryll for their expressions of sympathy. 
Sheryll your story of Sasha was so sad. I would have been quite 
distraught in such a situation. It is horrific to think of something 
cruel happening to a helpless creature, especially one you have 
cared for so much. One of the reasons I was so close to my little 
dog was that she had been rescued from ill treatment and so she 
clung to my side as much as she could for the 12 plus years I had 
her. Penny I love that your little girl has learnt 'dog' as her 
first word. My parents had two dogs when I was a baby. I have no 
conscious memory of either of them as I was only ten months old when 
my mother brought me back to Ireland. (They had the dogs in Africa 
where I was born.) But I am convinced that my lifelong love of dogs 
comes from subliminal memories of one of them at least who 
apparantly used to stand guard over my pram. Nor have I ever had any 
fear of dogs. Again my mother tells a story of leaving me in my 
pushchair, aged under 2, outside a shop in the way one could do then 
without fear of abduction, and coming out to find me with my fist 
halfway down an Alsatian's throat, saying 'Nice doggie.' It must 
have been a remarkably placid Alsatian!

Thanks again. Writing about her did help.

Mercia