Time Out.

I've been absent for a while...over a month, in fact.  I'm posting now not because I have a burning topic or witty anecdote, but I did want to post something. 

My Mom and her boyfriend visited me before Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful, probably the best weekend my mother and I have spent together in years, and I got to show her and Greg the city that I've made my home.

They brought my childhood dog along with them, Lily.  Lily was the dog that got me over my fear of dogs, and I always had a real connection with her.  She was so intuitive of my moods and responsive to my words and actions that at times it seemed she wasn't really a pet.  I know lots of crazies say that--maybe it's just called love.

Lily enjoyed the visit, and didn't leave my side.  The morning Mom and Greg left she came into my room for a little while and sat by me while I talked to her.

My Thanksgiving was wonderful, spent with my dad, my sister and her boyfriend.  I saw my grandma and an old friend.  It was the best thanksgiving I can remember, full of family.  I called my mom and she said Lily was back to her old habit of running to the door and looking out the window whenever they mentioned my name.

A few days after Thanksgiving, my mom called.  They had put Lily down.  They hadn't told me that for a few months, she had been on antibiotic treatments for a chronic skin condition.  It had cleared up for the visit, but started again in earnest when they got back to Pennsylvania.  The antibiotics had stopped working, and they began a steroid treatment, which ran down her system quickly.  It was an auto-immune disease of the skin, untreatable.  At the end her poor little body was too run down to recover and they made the decision to let her go.

 I am taking it pretty hard.  All pets are our friends, but Lily really was a friend to me.  I miss her.