We had to say goodbye to Abby

Our hearts are broken as we had to say good-bye to our sweet pup this morning.  She had a slipped disc again, but as always, was responding to the medication and was improving after 24 hours on medication.  Then, she slipped, and it seemed to compress the disc.  By last night, she was no longer able to walk.  It was awful to see.  Andrew called the vet last evening, and the news wasn't good.  Unless we woke up to a miracle this morning, we would be waking up with our sweet girl for the last time.  Fortunately, Andrew had no school today, and my co-workers graciously re-arranged schedules so I could be off most of the day.  The vet confirmed our worst fears, and we had to come home without her.  We were with her at the end, and honestly, we've spent a good part of the day crying.  We had Facetimed the kids last evening so each of them could say good-bye.  Telling Thomas and Catherine today was hard, especially Catherine.  She sobbed.  We are grateful her suffering wasn't worse, but oh, we miss her already.  The hard part is that she was still our sweet girl, her body was just failing her.  It's so quiet here.  As dog owners, I mentioned to Andrew that we pretty much had scheduled our lives around her.  This absolutely sucks.  Andrew and Thomas will be heading east tomorrow for football and it will just be me here tomorrow.  Dogs aren't really just pets, they are part of the family, and this is happening way too soon after losing Lincoln.