Not everything is about you

A quick addendum to my last post before I get started here:

I neglected to mention how much Auggie loves his Grandpa Luther and his Granny (my grandmother), too. He loves all of his relatives and it’s amazing to watch him connect to these people, some of whom he rarely sees. I mean, you would think that he would talk about his playgroup friends all the time and ask what they’re doing, but, no, it’s “What NickAbbyLivia doing?” and “When Grandma and Granpa coming?” and “Where Granny?” He seems truly perplexed about these questions at any given moment.

Anyway, I’ve been neglecting my blog, sadly. What with all the hullabaloo surrounding Elliott’s arrival and Auggie’s subsequent explosion into three-year-old-ness (“Why? Why? Why?” asks Auggie constantly. Why, indeed, wonders Mommy.), it’s been a challenge just finishing a conversation with my husband, let alone typing up a public discourse.

Despite the fact that I have a really decent excuse (for once), that still doesn’t make me feel any better about the fact that Coco has been gone for nearly a month and I haven’t said anything here yet. She deserves better.

So yeah, the weekend after we brought Elliott home (outside of my womb, that is), Coco developed these terrible cataracts, rendering her virtually blind. The specialist vet that we had visited had warned that cataracts were a definite possibility, given that we did not have her diabetes under control, and that they could develop seemingly overnight. They did.

Tim and I talked it over. The vet and I talked it over. Tim and I talked it over again. Then I took Coco to the vet’s office after a breakfast of her favorite canned dog food and held her in my arms as he put her to sleep.

I don’t really want to go into all of the details about her quality of life and why we made the decision that we did, because I don’t want to remember her that way. She was my partner in crime, my only female companion in this house of boys. I miss her every single day. So even though there’s not a grave anywhere with her name on it, there’s this:




Coco “The Nutter” Clauss

1992-2004