The Boy said the blessing on the food tonight.  My family tends to wander a bit because they like cold food and The Boy is on his soapbox.  On and on, and I am dying here...and then he says, "And please Toddie, that he will do good in Heaven."

Todd.  He did not like cameras. But he did good here and he will do good in Heaven.  He will be laughing and horsing around with Peanuts and Auggie, Boots, Major, Peta, Porky and Bess - its going to be great.

I miss him too. Nana says it is ok to miss someone who dies.  They loved us and their love surrounds us like a blanket. Only their love never leaves.  Its there forever and ever.
Nana says when you love someone, they never really go away.  Their spirit stays close to you always because you belonged to each other.

Looks pretty clean, doesn't it?  This is The Playroom.  Its where the kids come but the windows are the best because you can see out of them (Thanks Grandpa!) and see them coming!

I am going to sit myself down here for a while and wait til those little children come home.  I don't understand: they get in the Big Machine and GO and then the Big Machine comes and throws out the little kids and it sits and stays. No one waters or feeds it.  Too noisy.

I would watch for you too...if you were going to come on over.  We'd love to have you!  Nana made cookies! What are you waiting for?  C'on! This is about as good as its gonna get!  Just bring your suits but we got lotsa towels. 
Hurry!
I will be watchin' for ya!

Good morning!  You are going to have to look really close at my picture.  Do you see the head phones?  Little Miss Texas and Little Miss Arizona put these on my ears.  Ha ha, they didn't notice that I have flaps over my ears especially designed to keep this kind of stuff away.

Little Miss Texas believes that I am listening to Country and Western and while I do think Faith Hill is very pretty, she is wrong.

Little Miss Arizona believes that I am listening to Rock and Roll and while I do like Olivia Newton John is quite wonderful, she is also wrong.

I am listening to Rachmaninoff, Concerto number 3 because it is Nana's favorite and I am sucking up to her because she knows where the dog treats are.

Of course, all of this is nonsense.  These are doll ear phones. lol

We had a Dog Fair!  A Fair Dog Fair...a Fairy Dog Fair.  This dude stole MY wings and was licking MY water and LOOK at him.

Oh oh...Nana says it was a her.

LOOK at HER!!!  All I am going to say is that those are monarch butterfly wings and we are not on the migration route for monarch butterflies and SHE is a dog.

Its all so embarrassing.


Oh OH...Nana says that the wings made for great pictures and the new dog park got money from the pictures and I am supposed to say "sorry".

I am not saying sorry because...it looks stupid and now I have to go because Nana is going to wash my mouth out with soap because I am not supposed to say "stupid".  I hope she uses Irish Spring...it is so refreshing.


Oh.  And they are not my wings either.

This is Bailey again.

It has been a little while since Toddie laid down.  Nana says that in Botswana - a place that I will not be invited to - when people and dogs die, they become "late".  So, Toddie is late.  When he became late, I was very sad and sometimes I go and lie down where Grandpa left his body and sit and think deep thoughts.  Toddie is late.  Someday I will be late and Nana says its all ok.

Ok Nana.

But we have had Company.  8 of the almost 16 came and I was so busy.  They swam and shared.  They are very good about sharing so I got hot dogs (hot dogs!!!) and yogurt, and peanut butter and home-made raspberry jam on whole wheat bread and popsicles, and baby food and crackers and popcorn and ice cream.  Dr. Wendy said that I need to lose a few - a few what I might ask???

So 6 of 6 took 4 of 2 to the Lego Store and 1 of 4 decided she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear but she built a dog.  Then she brought it home and look what I had to share:

It was startling to say the least...


Oh...by the way...Grandpa has a numbering system.  1 of 6 is Nana's oldest and she has 5 children.  So 2 of 6 has 4 children, 3 of 6 has 2, 4 of 6 has 1, 5 of 6 has 2 and 6 of 6 has a baby coming for my birthday present.  So.  You have to figure out who is who and what is what and who belongs to who and we all belong to Nana.  Even Grandpa.

Well, I decided, based on Toddie's general sweetness and my own good up-rearing and all, I would forgive Toddie and gently remind him that he loved me.  He gave me a sweet lick and lied down.

I went and told Nana and she went and got Grandpa and they were crying.  So I started crying and so Nana has to write this next part because I am so sad.

This is Nana and I am going to talk to Bailey because he is a little confused but the rest of you can listen in if you like.

On this earth, we called Todd a Shiz Hsu. He came from a long line of proud ancestors whose job it was to protect the Emperor and his family.  They carried these little dogs in their sleeves - this is where you get the saying about people "hiding something up their sleeve."  But Todd was born in a mystical land called Blaine, by the sea with beaches and seagulls and waves and all.  And he wobbled over and chose The Girl and she brought him home.  Todd had wonky eyes that couldn't tell depth so he would run around the corner and WACK! straight into the wall. He liked to sleep on the bed and we soon found out he needed a king-size bed for the little Emperor's dog.

Toddie looked like an Ewok.  He didn't like to wear human doll clothes and he acted like a cat most of the time.  He like tomatoes and ketch-up, ice cream, mashed potatoes and gravy.  He did not like peas or strawberries.  He seemed to believe that if it was not worth wearing, then it was not worth eating.  For a while, Todd fell into the "wrong crowd"...Auggie.  Auggie was from the wrong side of good and did his best to corrupt Todd.  But Todd was too good, or had hit his head too hard, too often and so he remained pure and sweet.  He didn't like to get cold.

Toddie The Pure and the Brave died in Nana's arms last Sunday night. June 2, 2013.  We knew that Toddie had a stroke on Friday night and so we stayed close on Saturday and Sunday.  We could tell he was leaving so the children came to say good bye.  They were so soft and gentle. but wanted to know what would happen to Todd.

This is what we believe and this is what we told them:  We believe that all things were created spiritually upon this earth before they were created physically.  We believe that we lived with our Heavenly Father before we came here and we will go back to him as we choose to do what He would have us do.  So Toddie's spirit went back to Heavenly Father and Todd will get to play with Peta, Major, Curtis, Peanuts and Boots.  We believe that when the Savior comes back to Earth and its all glorified and perfect, Toddie will get his perfect little body back and he will stay with our family.

Grandpa buried Toddie's body in a casket in our yard by the roses.  We said a prayer.  Every now and then, we cry for a few minutes because we miss him.  He taught us a lot about patience, forgiveness, gentleness, boundaries, unconditional love, courage in the face of suffering. He taught us that if we are kind, perfection's failures have meaning. He taught us that looking clean and fresh helped you feel good about yourself.  He taught us that tomato sauce stains but to kiss him anyway.

Thank you for letting us share our sadness - it became halved - and thank you for being our friends.   Bailey is feeling pretty down these days and a good tummy rub is appreciated.

Never ever let the last thing out of your mouth be anything but I love you.

We love you Toddie.  You made us better, kinder, softer, gentler, more.  Good night sweet Emperor Dog,  we will see you soon.