On Monday the time finally came to say goodbye to Tyler. He's been going downhill for a while now, and we knew he probably wouldn't last much longer. He was going deaf and blind, was very stiff, and was losing use and control of his back legs. He couldn't sit anymore and had a lot of trouble laying down. Because of this he was spending a lot of time standing, placing all his weight on his front paws. His balance was going, and sometimes when walking he would lose control and splat on the floor. When he started having accidents inside over the weekend we knew the time had come. When we weighed him at the vet Monday afternoon he was 11 lbs, down from his normal adult weight of 15 lbs. Nevertheless it was hard to let him go, and we mourn his passing. I've been getting choked up and teary eyed at random times all week. We've been telling Gavin for months now that Tyler probably wasn't going to make it much longer, and he has taken Tyler's loss pretty well. He talks about seeing Tyler again in heaven some day, and said "I think Tyler is playing with the good dinosaurs in heaven." A few times Amelia has called for him, "Puppy!" Tyler was such a good dog. He was so, so sweet, and great with the kids. Even as his health deteriorated he never growled or snapped at them. He turned 14 this month. We bought him from a pet shop at the Macon mall a few weeks after moving to Warner Robins on September 10, 2001. As we drove home from the mall with Tyler we were trying to come up with a name for him. We bounced a few around, and then an Aerosmith song came on the radio. I said, "What about Tyler?" (lead singer of Aerosmith= Steven Tyler) and thus he was named. We had only been married a year; Jake was 23, I was 22. 14 years is a long time.
Monday morning:
Fall 2001, almost 14 years ago:
