Djuna, ? - April 11, 2009

Djuna contemplates
Originally uploaded by vegacura

Djuna was a leaner. She would walk up to M.C. or me where we'd be sitting or standing, sidle up alongside and then rest her weight against our leg. Up to the end, she was the sweetest dog I've ever met, and although we only had her for four years, having adopted the poor dog when she was already presumed to be older. She'd been abandoned in a snow storm, spent two days under someone's deck, then spent several months in a foster home with a jealous female lab. She never complained. Nor did she ever complain when she suffered from terrible gum disease and, more recently liver failure. But in the last few months she pretty much stopped eating, and in the last few days, she pretty much stopped taking water. It was time, and even through the indignities of the final trip to the vet, she was patient as ever with us. We'll miss her.

A year or two ago as we were walking her in a park, a young girl came up to us and asked if she could pet her. As she did, she looked up at us and said, "She's soft as a pillow." Yes, we said, she is.