Every family has to go through ups and downs (the ups are happy and the downs are inevitable). We hit a "down" over the weekend. We lost our pup, Chips. He was on the back porch while the fireworks were going off. He got spooked (he was never a big fan of them), jumped out of the screen and off of the porch. He went roaming that night and never came home. Ed, a friendly neighbor that we've never met, called yesterday afternoon to tell us the sad news.

To think that part of his death involved him running and exploring at the old age 14(ish) is kind of fun because he would always run away on us. He was our faithful greeter- we'll miss the way he trotted out to the driveway every time we came home and his post dinner bark that told us "I'm finished- where's my chewy treat dessert?" He was with us since February 1997. We're sad that we never got to say a real goodbye to him and we hope that he knew that he was loved until the very end of his life.