sad day

(Started writing this on Thursday, July 3rd- finished today, July 6th)

Yesterday was a sad day. My dad called me a little after 9 and asked if Mom was at my house. I told him no, and that I was trying to get a hold of her too... (I had called to tell her a funny story about Cade- which I'll post down below). He proceeded to tell me that Courtney (my dog) wasn't doing so well yesterday morning.



My parent's bought Courtney for me when i was 14. My brother, Bret, had just gotten a weiner dog, Zoey, from his girlfriend, so Mom and Dad came home with Courtney. I remember I was walking home from school and I was right by the elementary and they pulled up behind me. I saw Mom had something in her lap and i thought it was a bunny at first (they had brought me home a bunny a few years back). But then I saw it was a puppy and was so excited!



Trying to determine a name was tricky- she whined all the time and she drooled, I remember. I was trying to think of a name and Dribbles came to mind. Mom was like- no, why don't you give her your favorite girl's name? I remember being in a "club" with my 2 childhood friends, Sarah and Julie, and we had these "club" names. Mine was Kortni. We all spelled our names weird- I think Sarah's name was Skii, but don't remember Julie's. :) Anyway- so Kortni was my favorite name and that's how she got her name. I didn't spell it my "club" way, just the normal way. Let me tell you too, if I would have known Courtney would still be alive when I wanted to have kids, I would have never named her that- Beau refused to let me name our kid Courtney (name I wanted when I was pregnant with both kids).



Anyway- so back to yesterday... Dad told me that Courtney had thrown up a couple times throughout the night and he couldn't get her to go to outside (he always lets them out before he goes to work). He said she finally went out back and just laid by the fire barrel. Dad had to go out and pick her up to get her to come back inside. He said she's been drinking a lot of water and when she came inside, she didn't want her treats. He woke Mom up to tell her how she was acting and then went to work. So after he told me this, Ashlynne and I went over to their house (Cade was at daycamp with Raeleigh) and sure enough, Mom and Courtney were gone. I started to get nervous because I didn't know what had happened. I called Linn Animal Hospital and sure enough, they were there. I asked them to have Mom call me when she got done (of course, she didn't have her cell phone with her).



Mom called and said that they were going to put Courtney down. She was full of cancer and completely dehydrated. Mom said yesterday morning, she just could not stop panting. She said that the doctor told her how much it would cost to run a bunch of tests- like $150- not bad, but Mom said the outcome would have probably been the same. She didn't want Courtney to suffer like Blackie did (mom and dad's first dog). Courtney would have been 16 on July 13th, so she lived a nice, long, happy life.



I feel guilty because I don't feel as sad as I think I should. Maybe it's because when I got married, I left Courtney at Mom and Dad's because we didn't want to split her and Zoey up. So, I'm not as close to her? Didn't take care of her like I do MJ and Prince and consider my kids too? I did get a little teary eyed yesterday when I thought of the day Mom and Dad brought her home and how we came to name her.



Of course, we know she's in a better place and her and Zoey are together again.



On a lighter note- here is the story I got from Raeleigh's mom yesterday as they were driving to daycamp:



So, they pulled up next to a guy who was smoking. Raeleigh said, "look, he's got one of those things that are bad for you. You know, a smoking stick". The, the driver proceeded to throw the cigarette butt out the window. Cade said, "uh oh, he just littered- he threw a candy wrapper out the window". Raeleigh said, "no, that was his smoking stick". Cade said, "no, it couldn't have been. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to smoke and drive".

Hope everyone had a happy 4th!