It’s been a hard week. I had to say goodbye to this guy, Laurence, my fearless protector, my Direwolf (okay, just a really BIG White German Shepherd) on Tuesday, and then the next day was my birthday, and I just didn’t have it in me to even acknowledge it as such. I’m just sad. The whole family is. Even our other dog, our equally huge Rottweiler-Shepherd mix, Snuggles, is just moping around the house. He’s lost his best friend, his tussling buddy, and I think on some level, he knows it, yet he’s also watching the door, just in case. And don’t get me wrong, we love the heck out of Snuggles, and he loves the whole family. But Laurence was mine. And I was most definitely his. I never left his sight; we were eye to eye and nose to nose until the sedative fully took hold. I just kept telling him, “You’re a good boy, and I love you”, over and over to his last waking moment. This is just seconds before that moment. Thank you for all the sweet birthday messages on all the platforms, and I’ll look at them soon, I promise.