Despite the pain meds and the general spoiling and extra love of the last couple of days, we said goodbye last night to our dear, beautiful, proud Rocky dog. He was clearly in a lot of pain and didn't seem like he could get comfortable, so we took him in the middle of the night to the emergency clinic, where Jamie, his son and I cuddled Rocky until he passed peacefully.

Thank you to everyone who wrote such lovely comforting responses to my post the other day. It really meant a lot to me.

All of this has been made even more challenging as it came while we've been reeling from the effects of the big storm that tore through here two nights ago. We have two large trees down, our driveway was blocked by another broken tree, one big branch fell on my stepson's car (luckily most of the impact was absorbed by a stone wall nearby so very little damage), another big branch in our swimming pool, and a crushed adirondack chair that my husband had been sitting in 5 minutes before the storm hit! Our power just came back for the first time since 11pm Friday night, and we've had temps of 100 degrees.

But we're relieved we're ok, the house escaped damage, and we have lots of happy memories of Rocky. Plus we have each other and two adorable pugs who continue to bless us with their companionship.