Sweet Syd

Sweet Syd

My Basset Hound, Sydney, of (almost) 12 years has died. We actually put her to sleep which my 8 yo son took issue with. "Why did you kill her?" he wailed through his tears, several hours after we put her down. Just before her 'sleep' we were trying to reassure him that she would be better off - in Heaven. "But how do we know if Heaven exists?" Tough questions at such a tender age, my age I mean. I'm not ready to tackle these yet but I muddled through and I think I passed; it's hard to know.

Sydney was the queen before the kids came along. She slept in the bed, under the covers. She enjoyed regular walks, belly rubs and lots of friends. After our first son arrived, she lost her regal status and was relegated to just a dog. The walks and belly rubs less frequent, she managed to adjust and soon realized she could get away with more mischief as our attention was diverted. She was a hound through in through, sniffing out anything appetizing (to her) and woofing it down in seconds flat, including a whole raw steak, stick of butter, cherry pie, bag of Easter chocolates including the aluminum wrapping, many dirty diapers and of course a daily snack of her own excrement. Gross, I know, but somehow endearing to me now.

I'll miss her waking us first thing in the morning, with the clickity, clickity, click of her (too long) nails rapping the hardwood floors. What I'll miss most is her smell - no matter how doglike it was- it was 'home' to me.

Sleep tight, sweet Syd.