willowisp | Strange Consolations

For those who remember the Sasha saga, I finally ended up finding a home for the little Australian shepherd/Australian cattle dog mix with my sister's former violin teacher. Said former violin teacher had adopted the sister of my aunt and uncle's female Australian shepherd and the brother of their male Aussie. Winnie's sister had died just when I started looking for a home for Sasha, and Sasha became Musetta to Jazper's brother, Mozart.

On July 4th, just after midnight eastern time,

callicrates' uncle, whom I'd mentioned previously as being in great agony, finally let go in the company of his wife, daughters, and some friends. The next day I received mail from my mom; Winnie, who was 13 years old (which is pretty respectable for large dogs like Aussies), had at 11:30pm or so on July 3rd taken a turn for the worse from the congestive heart failure she'd gone into a few days earlier. She was released by a compassionate vet in Syracuse (since none of the vets in Rome could be bothered to help end her suffering) at exactly 2am eastern time.

Andy and I immediately had the same notion: neither Steve nor Winnie were alone that morning. They had one another for company. I hope he doesn't mind French kisses, because the otherwise gentle and sedate (especially for Aussies) Winnie was a fiendish mastermind when it came to planting them on people, even those who knew what she was up to.

I called mom on the 5th after our first attempt to get to the funeral was thunder-stormed out in Dallas, and she gave me a postscript. Uncle Doug and Julie always seem to see rainbows just after someone they've cared for has died, and later that day was no exception. This time, however, there was a difference -- on July 4th, 2006, they saw a double rainbow.