Our Two Sons: November 2010

Thanksgving 2010

making bread

A six year old's thoughts on Turkey Day

Day Two No School

Snow Angel

Jonah

Today at The Burrow we said goodbye to one of our own. The one who has been with us the longest in the time we have spent at The Burrow.

Jonah.

Photographs courtesy of the fabulous Jenica Lemmons

Jonah who has walked by our sides up and down this Creek Road for almost seven years, left us rather abruptly this afternoon. He waited for his six year old friend to get home from school, and then The Stitches said goodbye to our four legged pal in the cramped bathroom where he had made himself a nest of our dirty laundry. Legolas was called. And she arrived promptly to escort young Stitches away for the afternoon.

Photographs courtesy of the fabulous Jenica Lemmons

Jonah had been sick for a while, medication obviously wasn't enough for him. And this afternoon I was more grateful than I could say for these pictures that arrived, timely as it was in our mailbox from Jenica. We sat for a family session in October and on a whim I had her take some shots of the Menagerie in action.

Jonah was a great dog, he was friendly with the kids, he was strong, and powerful, he used to jump from bank to bank above the creek after balls, wow could he run. Throughout his seven and a half years with us (out of nine total) he was a running partner, a walking partner, a baby holder, a baby cleaner, and a baby vacuum. He loved the boys so much, that even as he lay practically unresponsive this afternoon he moved for them. When we brought the sad Stitch boys to him, he managed to move his head towards their voices and wag his tail. This was more than he had done in the hour before, when I called The Man because I was sure it was over.

Jonah in one of his many, many costumes, that he put up with.

Jonah was my protector. When I was pregnant he used to try to get as close as he could to me at all times. When the boys were babies he would lay on his back and wiggle over to them signaling to us that he was not aggressive but wanted to sniff that thing! It smells delicious.

When I was pregnant with my second son, My older son toddled around in the fenced in yard while I waddled after him. A neighborhood dog (badly behaved) came running up to the fence, aggressively barking at my son who was close to the fence. I wasn't worried, understanding how fences work and all, but Jonah ran over, lifted his leg and urinated all over myself and my toddler.

I was pretty sure Jonah had lost his mind.

But later a friend, who raises labs, told us that he was marking us. As his own. As in, you mess with my People, you mess me. FISTS OF FURRY!!!!!

(HA! I'm funny).

The whole thing endeared Jonah to me forever. I liked him alot before and all. But a little urine within the tribe goes a long way with this Mama.

Jenica Lemmons

When I was a SkSdM (Single kid, single dog mama) Jonah and I were regulars up and down the road, with Moo in the backpack, we wandered up and down this road.

I can barely remember a time when Jonah wasn't a part of The Burrow and for the boys that time has never existed, until now. Today as The Man and his father dug a grave on Dog Hill, I looked at the pictures from Jenica, read through old blog posts, like The story of when Jonah went to the Pound, cried and thought about my old pal, who has stuck with us through so much, loyal and stoic to the end. Not wanting to cause us any bother.

The Man has his shovel, a necessary part of the grieving process, and I have my blog. A place to record the song lyrics that I used to sing to Jonah, His theme song. As we wandered up and down the creek and he lost ball after ball.

(To the theme of Lola)

Joooonah, My dog's Name is Jooooonah
Well, Jonah's a dog
He's not very smart
He likes to chase balls
but u sual ly he loooses them all.

Arf arf arf Bark Bark Bark Bark Bark
Bark Bark Bark Bark Bark Arf arf arf
Oh my Jonah Jo o o o ooonah
Jo o o o ooonah
Jonah.

Oh my Jonah.