lindy was a golden retriever- loved the wild lands, the shawnee, the tree improvement lands with the civil-war graveyard, the lake, the green-earth lowlands, the red cedar trail, any place where she could romp around, get dirty, roll in a dead fish carcass, or jump in the water. when i first met her (i married her master- she was my step-dog), she had a tendency to get away from us when we took her out, and her most disturbing habit, destroying furniture, floors, doors, etc. during thunderstorms, she got maybe because she was from california, and/or experienced loud kinds of violence in her earlier home. she learned to stick with her owner on walks, and she even calmed down a little during storms, but she kept her bouncy step, her long golden locks (shed freely), her trust and undying affection. she was especially sweet with the children (corey called her ngingy; they grabbed her, rode her, pulled her hair, and even bit her, and she'd virtually beg for more. she did fine in cold weather, panted a lot in the heat, and didn't like the car- she'd scratch and pull and even rip out seat belts. finally i got an old truck though and then i didn't worry about it, but, we also moved to a place where she didn't have to go out in it so much. she had turned quite gray (sorry, we have no picture to share) and we knew she was getting older; we'd been told that 13 was pretty old for goldens, and we knew she might have a few years on her that we didn't know about. we weren't prepared for her to get sick suddenly, though, unable to eat or have normal functions; thankfully this happened rather quickly.

lindy died in an anna, illinois vet on tuesday afternoon. the children are in no way prepared to understand such a thing, so we won't explain it too carefully. we will miss her deeply, though, and always remember those walks in the country, which, hopefully, will continue, in some form or another.