All dogs go to heaven... (I hope)

Our family dog Baron died on Monday. He was hit by a car and died during surgery from the extensive trauma he received. It has surprised me just how hard I have been taking this. Jay got Baron shortly after he and Lindsey started dating (she drove up to Dallas with him to help him pick out the puppy)... so we had him for almost five years, for all of which I have lived in Austin. He's ginormous, comparable to a horse, so I've never been one to cuddle with him. But I have been crying all week about it! I don't remember the last time I was this upset over a pet's death. When you grow up in the country always having at least 3 or 4 pets at a time, you get used to pet deaths.

Perhaps it's the circumstances of this death. Baron was not prone to wandering near the road unless there was something going on that shouldn't be. Also, he's HUGE (tall and probably close to 170 lbs), so it's hard to believe that someone would not see him in the road. And, that someone didn't even bother to stop and help the poor dog! I really hope some major damage was done to the car. From the extensive amount of wounds, the vet was pretty confident in saying that he was hit dead center and at excessive speed (the speed limit is 40 mph on unmarked county roads). Poor, poor guy.

I don't think I had realized how much I depended on Baron as my protector. Our house can be a pretty scary place when you're there by yourself. Baron was always good at greeting my car whenever I pulled into the driveway and walking me to the house. He would sleep outside the door, and I always felt good about hearing him bark at unknowns in the middle of the night. I'm so glad that when I was walking out to leave home last weekend I stopped to pet Baron and tell him what a good boy he was, that's not something I usually do.

Here are two pictures of Baron. One from when he was a puppy, and the other from a few months ago when we had snow in Lufkin. We're going to miss you, Baron!

I'm headed to Houston tonight to stay with cousin Kathryn, Noel, and baby Will before I fly out to D.C. bright and early tomorrow morning for C.A.R. National Convention. I have a lot going on that I want to blog about, so hopefully you will see a lot more of me when I return... but no promises...