An Empty House

The past few months have not been very happy for me. Back in November my cat, Max, died suddenly and unexpectedly. There was no apparent cause. He was just 7 years old. I adopted him 6 years ago to be a companion to my aging chocolate lab, Tucker. As it turns out Tucker never seemed to show any interest in Max, but Max over time grew very attached to Tucker. I did catch them occasionally sleeping on the bed next to each other, but always as soon as I saw this Tucker would get up and go sleep some where else.

On February 1st Tucker turned 13, but he was really showing his age. His hind legs had been loosing muscle mass over the past 3 years and his ability to move has been slowly declining for that same time. Until finally this past Sunday he could barley walk and needed help just standing up. Of course this happened during the worst blizzard DC has seen. My sister and her husband were awesome in getting out to me and Tucker in their 4 wheel drive to help me take Tucker one last time to the Vet. I pumped him full of pain meds so that he could walk a bit, and he spent the whole morning outside eating snow. Snow was Tuckers most favorite thing in the whole wide world along with eating, treats, swimming, eating, having his ears scratched, eating, playing frisbee, and eating :)

So for the first time in 13 years when I come home it is to an empty house...

There will be other dogs, and maybe some day another cat, but for now I am going to travel a bit and see my sister in CA and maybe finally make some promised trips to visit old friends.

I'll miss both my boys, but I know they both had a great life and my life was definitely better for having them in it.

"Max"
Nikon FM2N
Afga Scala 200 (B&W slide film)


"Tucker"
Polaroid 180 w. close up lens
Fuji 3000B