Saying Good-bye.

***If you are looking for information on Lucy's and Luca's puppies, just keep scrolling down***

I know.
They're just puppies.
It's not like they're people.
But when you're pouring yourself into helping, forcing, willing a fragile puppy to live, it just physically hurts us when they don't pull through.
Some of them were born very tiny and just never really grew.
So we would hold them against our skin to keep them warm, try to comfort them while they struggled to breathe at 3 a.m.  Feed them with tiny kitten bottles, which led to tiny stomach tubes so we could get nourishment into them.
 Somehow.
But nothing worked.
And we lost one after another until four had died.

The last pup was lost the other night after a valiant effort. He honestly didn't look like he should have lived as long as he did.

But he was a fighter. Which made it all the more difficult to stop the heroic measures, wrap him up in a towel, and place him in the side of Lucy's puppy pool until he stopped breathing.

That's when Lucy came over to see.

I am not attempting to attribute human emotions to an animal that does not have the capacity for it, but I think the pictures below explain the story.

I took pictures because I was stunned to see her grief. I know dogs mourn for various reasons, but had never witnessed something as moving as this.

To me, this is heart-wrenching, amazing and beautiful as she says good-bye to her puppy.
I hope you understand why I put these pictures up.
Lucy is a wonderful Mama, and this is truly touching.

 God has blessed us with our dogs, our companions, our best friends.
 Manytimes, in more, and deeper ways, than we are aware of.

Good-bye precious puppies.

I love you, Lucy the Lion.