No politics tonight. I say goodbye to one of my best friends.

Sometimes things just overwhelm petty politics.

Today I had to sadly say goodbye to my 15-year-old dog who has suffered from cancer but lived life the best he could to the end:

Hogger

It's not just Hogger I am weeping for tonight, it's also his mom, whom we lost in February, and Little Ellis who left us last winter. And Magnolia, who is also elderly special needs, who will most likely be leaving us soon as well.

Girliedog, Hogger's mom

Hogger & Ellis

When Ellis came to live with us, Hogger really believed we got him a puppy all for himself!

Left us a few years ago, but remembered well:

CD, Hogger's father who left us a few years ago from a similar cancer. Have you ever seen a sweeter face? He was a full-bred pitbull.

Magnolia, who is desperately trying to recover from a grand mal seizure out of nowhere last week and is desperately trying to regain control of her back legs:

And also Fawnskinmudpuppy who said goodbye to Oreo today as well.

We only have our furrybabies on loan for a short while, but what we get in return is more love than we probably deserve, and we are so much MUCH better for that short time shared.

Some links for the furrbutt moms & dads who have said good bye or are reaching that point.

Til Then

Saying Goodbye

Waiting at the Rainbow Bridge (Sarah McLachlan)

ETA: (h/T to High Peaks at Palingates)

A statement made just about four years ago by Gretchen Jackson, co-owner of Barbaro, the horse who was injured during the 2006 Preakness and later died. She said at the time "Grief is the price we all pay for love."
What she said made a huge impression on me and I tacked a copy of this statement up on my fridge so I would continue to think about it over time. I don’t think any of us would change this equation, even if we could. To not grieve would render our love meaningless, and to not love would consign us to a life of constant, if low-level grief.
I think all of us who have loved a cat or a dog or a person we later lost would agree, that the pain of loss, however acute and ongoing it may be, is but a tiny fraction of the joy that our love brought us and our loved one over the years. There are millions of lonely shelter cats and dogs, not to mention many lonely people who could have some of that same joy in their lives if we would only stop to realize that both the grief and the love are something we as humans should learn to celebrate. The love always trumps the grief, because while we only grieve after a loss, we continue to love that which we have lost forever.

ok, a couple more videos:
Paws Over the Bridge (Please Stay Just a Little Bit Longer)

I Loved You Best

Who is the REAL leader?

While Sarah Palin crashes the Rolling Thunder event by cutting in front of the front of the line 30 minutes late and seriously elbowing her way between two Rolling thunder veterans because she saw a microphone and didn't do anything for the POW/MIA except saying she loves smelling the Harley "emissions".

In real life, our President was in Joplin, Missouri:

President Obama in Joplin

sadly, our President has Cantor saying natural disasters need a spending cut (read=Medicare/Social Security)... GOP assholes...

and abroad, our President speaking to the British Parliament:
President Obama addressing British Parliament
and the CNN peeps say it's a "New World Order" and CNN is going all over that crap.
'nuf said.

Waiting for the Rapture

I'm waiting for the Rapture but not holding my breath.
It's 6 p.m. somewhere soon.
Waiting for the Tommyknockers...
but not holding my breath and heading off to sleep knowing that tomorrow is going to come yet again.
I hope there will be cupcakes & ice cream on Sunday for those of us left behind...

Family Values

OK, we now have Arnold's blockbuster 13-year-old son born via a family employee.

John Edwards has a child by his videographer.

Newt Gringrich on his third wife (who looks like some sort of blow-up f***me doll... good grief, is Callista in her 40s??? She looks horrible).

Got Mark Sanford from SC who tried to convince everyone that the Appalachia Trail was actually somewhere in Argentina.

John Ensign thought he was above family values with his affairs and drug his parents into the entire mess. Not to mention Sen. Coburn and the rest of the "C Street" Family gang of manly Christian family values asshats and how it's ok for them, the wives should just sit down and STFU and take it, standing quietly behind their men with a pained expression.

OK, FDR & JFK were players, but that still doesn't make it right.

But they didn't play the family values card.

I'm beyond disgusted now. And I call bullshit on all of them.

Including the Palin alternate reality of family values.