good news, bad news

and the good is really good and the bad is really bad.

the bad news: my stepmother and father put down my childhood dog, wally. without telling me. granted, it's not like they removed wally from my house and had him put to sleep - wally lives with them and has lived with them since I was 18. I got wally for my 16th birthday, so I spent 2 years caring for him while my dad and KKKathy had him for 12 years. kathy was the one who taught him all the tricks he knew, and took him for walks, and groomed him, and fed him, and later in life she would carefully wash him and clean up after him as his entire back end was paralyzed from arthritis. so it's not like they had to consult with me. clearly wally was kathy's dog after all this time. but I loved that dog, too, and I would have liked to know that they were going to do it - or at least that they had. I found out by sean telling me after kathy had mentioned it IN PASSING on the phone regarding something else entirely.

the last time I saw wally was this past sunday. kathy said that this could possibly be the last time I saw him, and I said I knew. he was gray, and old, and deaf, and blind, and couldn't walk. my dad had wanted to put him out of his misery a few months ago, but kathy firmly said she wasn't ready for that yet. and as of sunday, kathy still wasn't ready. in fact, she said she wasn't sure that they could go on vacation at the end of august because she didn't want anyone else watching wally. so you can imagine how I felt finding out the way I did that it was this past tuesday, 48 hours after her telling me she wasn't ready, that wally was put down.

like I said, it wasn't my decision. he was hardly my dog. but I told sean - I think it would be evident by the way I cried when my dad told me that they were even considering doing this; that when I was finally able to, I bought a dog EXACTLY LIKE WALLY, same breed, same coloring, same goddamn BREEDER as wally, because I loved wally so much; it would be evident that I did, in fact, love wally and would care deeply when he was gone.

I took pictures of wally on that last day, and I'll post them here when I download them. wally is much grayer and broader and has bigger paws than maggie, but when wally was a younger dog, he was almost indistinguishable from maggie:


it's not the greatest picture, but it's one where I think maggie resembles wally really closely. from what we know of our breeder, it's entirely possible that maggie is actually related to wally.

I haven't talked to kathy or my dad yet. I don't know what I'll say. they had no obligation to me, and I'm angry, and they're probably very sad, so I don't know what's appropriate. for now, I'm going the avoidance route.

the good news, and I wish it were timed better: bella can crawl. she crawled clear across the room for sean yesterday, and again for me when I got home. she pushes herself up to sitting and can get up and down while holding onto furniture like it's no thang. gone are the days when we could plop her on the floor and quick let the dog out, or keep a fan on the floor, or put her in the middle of our bed while we get dressed. now more than ever, we have to get stuff done with our house. babyproofing, but more importantly - new carpet, new pergo in the front room, and a new kitchen floor.