As you can see, the girls have claimed the two chairs on the back porch. They sleep. They watch the ocean. They bark. They dig.

These two get along quite well. Yesterday, they cornered a chipmunk under the picnic table. Poor little guy was truly terrified. How could he know that they just wanted to play? Pauline broke the game up so the chipmunk could get away.

What was interesting was that they worked collaboratively, on opposite sides, to fence the little fellow in. I have not had dogs around who cooperated for 30 years. Stosh and Mayday could do it. Once they teamed up, on either end of a culvert, to trap a rabbit. Gepetto and Spike, Spike and Maggie -- no way.

These two girls like each other quite a bit.

Here is a link to a picture of the two dogs and Rachel and me.

Spike died on May 29, after a week of decline. The preceding Sunday, May 23, he stopped eating and pretty much stopped drinking, as well. The decline took all week. At first he could still get around, though he didn't want to move much. At the end he couldn't stand.

It was a cold rainy week. We had a fire going in the kitchen much of the time, to keep him warm. In this picture you can see the edge of a rocking chair that I moved into the kitchen wo I could be with him.

You can also see that Molly - who could tell that he was not well - stayed close by.

It was really nice, in the end, for Spike to have someone to cuddle with. Pauline and I have the sense that he always wanted that - but Gepetto sure was not about to cuddle with him - and Maggie and Spike did not get along in a cuddly way. But Molly ...

Here is a link to another picture of the two of them, this time while he was in the den.

We had a really nice year with him after the cancer diagnosis. Heck, I thought he was a goner last July. But we were able to take some nice trips -- the trip down to get Molly was special, since he got to stay in a motel again, which he always enjoyed. Gimpy, and could hardly get around, but he got a big kick out of going up and down the hall to the motel room. And it was nice for him to get to be with Molly, and Molly with him.