Max

Something felt off all day today. At first I thought it was because I was leaving Basil Diva Dog after a weekend of dogsitting.

Basil Diva Dog is so much more frail then when his sister Ginger Puppy left us last October. He gets a little bit weaker every time I see him, so when I'm packing up my stuff as I did today, I can never tell if it's going to be for the last time. And I thought maybe that's why I felt so off kilter.

But it's not Basil Diva Dog. It's Pembleton. I came home to the Shabby Shack and Pembleton is gone. His human owners had to put him down this morning.

It wasn't completely unexpected. Pembleton had been going downhill for a few months now. He was old, and arthritic in the hips, couldn't run anymore, could barely walk, couldn't get out of bed, and wasn't eating and he was in pain and it was time.

His younger brother Pepe is doing okay. He apparently went with them to the vet, to observe and be with his brother till the end.

Pembleton was always a little on the loopy goofy side. His eyes were a little cross-eyed, his tail was always wagging. On the rare times that they had a sleepover in the Shabby Shack when their human owners were gone, Pepe would curl right up on a towel and go to sleep, Pembleton would run laps around the couch. Pembleton had floppy ears, two crop circles on his back, and he loved people. They say he was a puppy extra on the 102 Dalmatians movie , how they figured that out, I don't know, but I'd like to think that was true.

Even when he was annoying with his whines and cries, it was only because he wanted to be with people so much.

He had a really great life. He really did.

This is my favorite shot of him. It was the first picture I ever took with my fancypants iPhone last year. He absolutely loved sunning on that diving board. His favorite spot.

And his real name was Max.