IN MEMORY OF SHELBY

SHELBY- 11/05-1/09

Our family is in mourning tonight for our sweet dog Shelby. It's even hard for me not to break down while writing this, but I wanted everyone to know what happened before they get here tomorrow. Today was such a beautiful day. I was on my way home from getting Owen off the bus. Kayla and Scott were outside enjoying the beautiful weather and saw it all happen. As I pulled around the driveway, Shelby got underneath my car, and I ran her over. As soon as it happened, we all knew she was gone. I laid on the gravel next to her as she took her final breaths, and tried to say, "I'm sorry" as many times as I could. Scott, Kayla and Owen were all hysterical while I just sat there crying, making sure she knew she wasn't alone in her final moments. She passed quickly, and Scott buried her on the property. She was the perfect dog for us, and she will forever be a part of our family. Owen has barely stopped crying all night. It was extremely traumatic for him to watch her die, there was allot of blood, but everything happened so quickly, I couldn't shield him from seeing it. I had a long talk with him about death, and explained that she's in heaven now with Jasper, our 16 year old cat that died last year. I feel such guilt, and I've gone over every "what if" scenario in my head. Owen put it this way....he said "loosing something so young is really so terrible". That completely broke my heart. I always pictured the two of them growing up together, and maybe someday, when he was in college, having to tell him she died of old age. We all realized tonight that this weekend was the 3 year anniversary of bringing her home. She was a whole 1.5 pounds. We will remember her as a loyal part of our family,

and will miss her terribly.