I'm very sorry to see this update about your friend and her beloved Ally. My heart goes out to her during this dark time. I'm sure the weeks leading up to this goodbye have taken a great toll on her, emotionally and physically. Now that she's entered in this next phase of loss and grief, I hope she feels the support of all those who understand what she's going through as she tries to adjust to the hole left by Ally. Run free, sweet Ally. Watch over your Mom and everyone else who loved

I hope your friend's Aussie feels happy and well for as long as possible and that your friend finds the strength she needs to go through what's ahead. Sending lots of good vibes to both of them.

I'm late seeing this, but I wanted to send my support to your friend (and to you) at this incredibly heartbreaking time. Having faced the same decision with our dog (and it sounds like our devotion to him matched that of your friend's to her dog), I know what she's going through. And even when a dog isn't part of our immediate household, we share the heartbreak of the owner when the dog is one we've grown to love as our own. I hope you and your friend are able to bring lots of

[quote user="mrstjohnson"]the last time I saw the Lion's win a regular season game in person (we have season tickets) was 2007 - Riley didn't have any teeth yet!!! [/quote] That comment cracked me up! I think THAT should be a T-shirt slogan. You could put it on a child's size shirt that Riley could wear!

I'm a life-long Patriots fan -- we don't get the media coverage out here like you get, Stephanie, but I've heard similar reports on ESPN about Brady. One of my bosses plays FF, and a few weeks ago, he said to me, "I got your Tom Brady as QB, so he better not let me down!" "My" Tom Brady? Don't I wish! I told him I had my own doubts so soon after his injury/surgery. I missed last weekend's game because I wasn't home, but after I heard how horribly they played

As is the normal situation for me on the forum, I'm late hearing major news. I didn't know you were expecting, Janice -- obviously I missed a post somewhere a while back! Very belated congratulations! How exciting! I concur that Willa is getting so big - where the heck did the time go? And she has beautiful eyes! The pose on the skateboard is hilarious!

Wow - the children on this forum are just getting so big! I just saw Janice's pics of Willa. It seems like they were just baby photos, and now they're not babies at all! Birds of prey demonstrations are so cool -- we saw one about owls a couple years ago. The little screech owl was adorable, and his name was William! I just remembered that as I started typing. He was named after Shakespeare because he was found in a town that's famous for a Shakespeare festival. My friend's kids were

Not knowing your cousin at all, that simple gesture tells me enough about her character to know that she's a very thoughtful and compassionate person. She considers the dogs to be important parts of everyone's family, and therefore they were included in the festivities, even if indirectly. Despite all the wonderful things you probably experienced at the wedding (by the sounds of its fancy nature), it makes total sense to me that the memory that you'll keep most in your heart is the gift

I come from a half-Italian family -- with lots of pseudo-aunts and uncles. The lack of a blood relationship doesn't diminish the love and value they bring to my life, and the loss of such special people can be just as difficult (sometimes more so) than that of "real" family members. I've also experienced that heart-breaking time when you find yourself turning from "get well" prayers to "relief-of-suffering" prayers. I'm sorry you're going through this

We had to rent a house a few years ago, and while conducting the search for housing, we used a resume for our dog. It was part of a packet of info. The resume included his photo, name and age, all our contact information, and various key things about him. I used a typical resume format, with an "education" section that said when he'd completed basic obedience classes and that he participated in "continuing education." He also had a CGC certificate, so I noted the date he got