Zoo House

Penny (left) and Felix (right), two buddies in the zoo we call home. This post is for my friend Kris whom I've just recently reconnected with. I told her how I lost Max recently and she wrote an email saying it sounded as if I have more animals in the house. Oh boy do I! Three cats: Felix, Samson, and Sydney, a dog: Penelope and a gecko: Dragon. I don't have pictures of everyone...but I will try to get them all posted on this blog at some point or other. Two weeks after Max died I found a very old dog dying of starvation on the side of the road. I brought him home and took him to the vet. We nursed him for two weeks trying to get his strength back- but it didn't work and we had to put him to sleep. We named him Wylie Coyote because of the incredible likeness to the Looney Toons character. He was a sweetheart and one of the many beloved animals to have lived in our Zoo House. Kris also mentioned that she has lost both her labs in the past few years and that she has them buried in her yard with lilac bushes. I plan to do something very similar with Max and Wylie. When we moved in the house Russ and Sam discovered a grave stone out back for a Boxer who died in 1952. We are going to make that the gravesite for our animals. It's on the far end of our property and I'm going to put a white fence around the area with a trellace at the entry way and make it a garden of all my favorite flowers and bushes. I also plan to put a bench or table out there so that I can sit and visit them often. I think its important that their souls feel honored. As crazy as this will sound....I can practically see Max still running in our yard. Its hard for me to look out back without envisioning him playing and loving the space. Maybe it brings me comfort to think of his soul continuing to live with us in the house and in that yard as if he never left. Here is a picture of Max on the last day his physical body was with us at the house. He doesn't even look like himself. And below a picture of Wylie Coyote.