Goodbye, Sweet Phoebe Girl.

Monday night we lost our sweet little old-lady beagle, Phoebe.
She was 15+ years old and part of our lives for 14 1/2 years.
She was part of our family.
She was our first "baby", we got her before we were even married, way before kids.
I picked her out on my lunch break from work one day with a friend at the pound.
She looked so scared and sad in there, I just felt so bad for her.

{not the BEST, but the most recent picture of her}

She was hit by a car in our neighborhood Monday night.
That is something I was always afraid would happen to her because she was a beagle and she loved to go...to track... to smell... she  LOVED  it.
Before our backyard was fenced in she would get loose and be on the run a lot but it hasn't happened for a while... when we realized she was
missing Monday and it was dark, I was worried.
Her hearing was almost gone and she was black and it was dark.
The kids and I drove around looking for her all over the neighborhood and didn't catch a glimpse of her.
When we pulled back int he driveway at home someone called and said she had been hit right in front of her house.
I sent Eric to get her... just in case... I didn't want the kids to see her if it was bad.
A car hit her and didn't even stop.
They didn't even stop. That really breaks my heart... it just makes it worse.
But a car behind them did, a woman with a few teenagers stopped and stayed with her... they wrapped her in a blanket and were with
her until she was gone.
When Eric got there she was already gone.

Because of her age, it had been on my mind a lot that her days and years were not much more... I imagined that we would have to put her down
one day in the near future.
I didn't expect this... it sounds silly when people say that... but you don't.
I kept thinking... 
"But, but, but... I would have taken her for a walk today... I would have made her a hot dog or steak or let her lay on the couch with me... 
or made it a point to pet her... "
I didn't expect to cry so much over losing this dog.
We are all so sad that our girl is gone.

Last year we had to put to sleep our other beagle, Lucy,  so now we are pet-less.
It seems weird. And quiet.
And sad.
She really was such a good and sweet dog and we are just feeling a little bit heart broken this week.