Sometimes when I'm laying on my couch late at night, long after the wife & kids have gone to bed, and way into the early morning hours (I don't know if I haunt those hours or if THEY haunt ME...), I'll feel the presence of my first and best four-legged love, my Boots, right there next to me. She's all better now...lithe, fast as the wind, 'n snugglier 'n ever... nowhere is the pain that simply could not be relieved, that could only be delayed. I can feel her ears, the softest ever, feel her burying her muzzle into my chest as we cuddled, see her smile as we each tried to express to the other the unending love we had, one for the other. We gave our hearts to each other. Her day, her last day, 7/31/00, 2 years ago, was nothing like today, even though the sun is shining hot all over. It's nothing like today because that was SUCH a special time, our last times together. It was extraordinary, and could not have been a better way to spend special time with an extraordinary friend. After Boots went to the Bridge, a neighbor dropped by the house while I was at work and left a candid photo she had taken when Boots and I were on one of our many walks, gettin' into trouble. She's smiling her brown-eyed smile, looking back and up at me, and I'm standing close, scratchin' her rump, and telling her of my love with my eyes and MY smile... It's the best memory of a special love I could ever have had.