Goodbye to a Member of the Family

It was with heavy hearts that Tim and I made the decision to put our beloved Brittney Spaniel, Missy, to sleep this morning. Missy joined our family as a puppy way back in 1995. At almost 15 years of age, she had lost her vision, her hearing, and was having great difficulties walking and climbing stairs. She fell yesterday and injured her back legs and we could not stand to see her suffer. Tim has wonderful memories of hunting western Kansas with her, Shelby and Brenton have great memories of growing up with her, and I will never forget the night Tim let her outside in the middle of a blizzard, only to have her jump the fence and head off down the street. Tim got dressed, scraped the 4 inches of snow off his truck and went to find her. When he didn't come back, I got dressed and joined him on the hunt. I will never forget rounding the corner and the headlights hitting Missy, eating the neighbor's trash. We called her name and she looked up (with part of the trash hanging from her tooth) with an excited expression that said "I've hit the motherload!" She loved to jump the fence (until Hannah drug her up the street by the collar when Hannah was just a puppy and Missy never jumped the fence again). The memories go on as will our love for our friend. RIP, Missy - you will be missed.