Thea

Two weeks ago, Thea seemed to be losing her normal excitement for food so we took her to the doctor, expecting to find out she had some dental issue and learned she had a very aggressive form of lymphoma. The doc recommended palliative care and said she might even have a few good months ahead but, unfortunately, we only got another week. Today we had to say goodbye to her.

I can't begin to express how fortunate we were to be her humans and how much we miss her. She has slept by my side almost every night and kept me company while I work, since the day we adopted her. The emptiness where her playfulness used to be is deafening.

We adopted her in April 2007 and she was unfettered chaos. She destroyed my knitting, tore up books, and earned the moniker, "the stealth pooper," pretty quickly. Even so, it's impossible to think of her adoption as a "rescue" because she was the most loving, playful, outgoing pup from the start and if we hadn't scooped her up, some other lucky family would have.

Thea was a glorious weirdo, unrepentant hussy, and had the most amazing sense of humor. She seemed to always find humor in life and that rubbed off on all of us.

For me, it was love at first sight. I still remember seeing her photo on the rescue site and being instantly smitten. And then we got her and she was ten pounds of trouble in a five-pound sack.

I took this last picture the day she got her diagnosis. Her downturn was fast and unrelenting which was a kindness in its own way. She was unambiguously ready to go when we made the call. But that's all thinky logic stuff and it is doing fuck-all to cut through the grief. I miss her so much and wish I could kiss her head again.

I don't have any good way to wrap this up or the energy to regale you with the many wonderful stories I have about her. I just loved her to pieces and miss her terribly and I can't believe how fast she went from being her sweet goofy self to gone, but I am glad she isn't suffering and that I had so many wonderful years with her.