Allie has crossed over the rainbow bridge

I slept in this morning.  Yesterday's hike up Carr Peak exhausted me.

I managed to get outside to see part of a solar eclipse at 9:35am, but it was too bright to see any detail even through a camera lens.

Susan called me at 2:43pm.  She sounded sad.  "I have some bad news" she began, and I immediately thought of Sweetie.  "It's not Sweetie.  I had to put Allie to sleep on Thursday."

Allie is gone?!  I immediately got choked  up. I had known Allie from the earliest days, five years ago when Susan brought her home from a local rescue.  She was already an older dog, but still vibrant.  She was gentle and tolerant of all my dogs.  She was a barker and a fierce rat and gopher hunter.   

I never got to say good-bye. She died from a mass on her spleen that had been growing over the summer.  It had  ruptured Thursday morning.  That explains her lethargy on Monday.  Neither she nor Sweetie went for a "walk-about" around the property that day.  Susan wanted to give Allie's legs a rest and Sweetie is walking very slowly now and won't go without Allie.  We called them the Two Golden Girls.

I never took a photo of Allie on Monday when I last saw her, but it now explains why she wasn't feeling well that day and just sat in the grass facing us.  She had always welcomed me by the iron-wrought gate with a friendly bark,  She didn't do that on Monday.

We talked about all the walks we did as a pack along the San Pedro river in 2019-2020.  By 2021 Allie's back was getting too arthritic and we stopped the long walks .  The dogs always enjoyed wading in the cool water.

I asked how Sweetie is taking the death.  "She is confused," answered Susan.  She had been sitting next to Allie on the grass the same morning Allie went to the vet.  Perhaps Sweetie knew Allie was dying.  Dogs can smell death.

We both agreed we expected Sweetie to go first.  We both were wrong.

 Susan is leaving for California on the 19th to visit her daughter Amanda and her mother-in-law Gayle, who is 96 years old and suffering from sarcoma.  She will be on the road for ten days.  Sweetie will stay at her place and will be dog-sitted by her friend Sharon, who will be staying at Susan's for three weeks while her own house is getting painted before she moves in.

Susan's place will never be the same without Allie there.  Her nudging, her barking, her gentle antics with Sweetie.  i will miss my step-dog.

photo taken 09232023 by Susan