Growing up on the farm gave me a different prospective. Life and death was an everyday fact of life. You knew that the calf you were raising would be sold or later be dinner some day. It was just a fact of life.

As I have gotten older, I understand my dad’s way of dealing with it. All our cows had names. Plus, most of them had nicknames, like hamburger, steak, and other dinner plates. I think that was his way of dealing with the outcome.

Over the years, I have had several pets. I have become very close to them. All of my dogs were large breeds. For most, they do not live long. It has always hurt when something would happen to them. But that was life.

When I lost my shepherd, I did not want anymore dogs. About a year later, I ended up with this little basset. I called her Flow. It seemed that something was always flowing out of her. I carried her home in my arm and drove all the way home from Springfield, Ohio with her there. So, I think that is why she believed that she always needed to sit on me when she was smaller. She sat on me all the time. She was the most stubborn dog I ever tried to house break. I battled with her for weeks.

Bassets have their own agenda, and boy did she. Flow and I became very close. If I was doing something, she was there sitting on me, whether it was at the kids’ ball games or just driving in the truck and so on.

She was so funny and was always tripping over her ears and falling on her face. Then she would just sit there and look at you. She always seemed like she had something to say.

When life kicked me in the teeth, Flow would sit with me and keep me company. We sat for long hours together when I was sick, when I was lonely, and when my heart was breaking. Flow has gotten into the hearts of people that did not like dogs. She has been a very good friend, but it is coming to the time I do not want. Flow has liver problems. She have been holding it together, but it is slowly tearing me apart.

The last week has not been easy. Time is close. Sometimes she is such a pain. She will sit there like you are to be doing something for her. She will not eat. She does not want out, then she wants out. She will not eat a snack unless it is what you are eating.

If you see me in my Jeep just sitting there, I am OK. I am just thinking about this little soul that has touched my heart and has been a friend through thick and thin. It is going to be hard these last few days.