Selah

So, I can't write this without a few tears. Just past our 1 year anniversary, after Ben had made it clear on multiple occasions that he wanted a dog, I woke up one morning, knew I wasn't ready for kids, but was suddenly ready to have a dog. That very day we scoured the newspaper for free dogs, visited several, and settled on this cute puppy that came and sat right between us as though she was claiming us as her very own. She got the name Selah because I had always known that to mean "pause, reflect" in Psalms and she seemed so calm for a puppy--just right for us. So, for almost exactly 7 years we had her as our first "child", our protector, our companion, our bed hogger, a constant source of enjoyment, sometimes frustration, and the ever present shedder that polluted our home. She played with us, taught us what it meant to take care of another creature as we watched and cared for her when she started having seizures and as our own little ones came along, she became their friend and protector too. We noticed just a few weeks after Lilly was born that her breath smelled worse than normal and thought she had a bad tooth...in less than a month after getting concerned and getting it checked we knew that she had a serious and aggressive cancer and would not live much longer. We made the horrible decision to keep her from any further pain and surgery and put our Selah to sleep. We miss her horribly...she more than deserves a post all her own on our family blog!