Yesterday was a rough day. The past few weeks have been bad but yesterday was the toughest. Larry and I finally spread our Suzie's ashes over the 3 acres that she knew as home. I cried. Hubby cried. I picked a perfect cluster of rosebuds while standing in the hot (90 degree) sun, stabbing my fingers on the thorns, despite taking great care not to do so. Today, the buds are starting to open, my fingers have finally stopped bleeding (I have a bleeding disorder) and I have some closure. I will plant another rosebush from the seedpods of the first bush in memory of Suzie.

In case you didn't know, Suzie was one of our fur-babies - in fact, our first fur-baby in our new home in 2000. She was 5 years old then and her former 'mom' & 'dad' couldn't keep her when we bought their house. So we adopted her and have no regrets about it.

I never posted here about Suzie's passing but so you know the full story, here is an excerpt from a post that I made elsewhere on April 23rd:

We said goodbye to Suzie today.

I can't stop crying. Even though we were somewhat prepared for the worst, it still hits you hard to lose a pet that is more like your child. Once the vet had the results of Suzie's x-rays and bloodwork it was obvious that the best thing for her was to be put out of her suffering. She'd developed pneumonia (viral AND bacterial!) and something else (I can't recall what and the paperwork is still at the vet's) that started to shut down her kidneys. Even if we could afford the expensive, long treatment to make her well, the prognosis wasn't good based on her age and how far her illness had already progressed.

We are having her cremated and will scatter her ashes around the yard that she grew up in. I'm also thinking of planting a bush in her memory. It's been a rough week but today was the worst - Larry and I just look at each other, glance over to where Suzie's bed used to be and break down in tears. While I rarely ask for myself, we could use a few hugs, prayers and support to help us through. Suzie will be sorely missed. She was definitely loved.

Here's a pic of our fur-baby in better days:

Suzie, The Beautiful

Anyway, my thanks if you've read this far. I wanted to post this so that my FMily and friends here would know why I've been somewhat reclusive this past few weeks.