Many of you saw the news I shared on Instagram (and oh my goodness, the comments, texts and emails have been lovely, overwhelming, and most welcome) … we said Goodbye to Holly yesterday morning. Many of y’all didn’t know me back in December 2010 when I brought Holly home

Whoa, we were both SO YOUNG! From the beginning, Holly was my dog (not Marc’s, not the family’s, just mine). Marc was traveling a lot then (gone for weeks, often to Asia), Sara had just started college, the house was empty. Holly was the perfect, constant companion. She went everywhere with me except the grocery store and church.

Here’s what I shared on Instagram “She traveled by plane, car, foot, and eventually in my arms. Together we visited Los Angeles, Hilton Head, Beaufort, North Carolina, and Florida (more times than I can count). She hated snow and loved laps, popcorn, and apples (and apparently popsicles?!). I’m also 100% certain she’ll be a knitter in her next life.”

Sara came up yesterday morning to say goodbye and be with us. I’m grateful for her presence, and Marc’s. I also love the list that Sara shared, expanding on Holly’s likes and dislikes: “In addition to the above, she strongly disliked: the doorbell, any animal real or animated on TV, the vacuum cleaner, baths in the sink, the delivery man, when we had to get the schmutz out of her eye. She strongly loved: carrots, the sound of the cutting board (which typically meant carrots or apples but sometimes other food not meant for dogs), belly rubs, curling right up against you on the couch, that Wells Fargo blanket, the park outside the library, cookies, walking only along the edge of the driveway, when Mom came home, when Mom was home, sitting next to Dad while staring longingly at Mom, really just Mom all day every day. And that perfect sunny spot.”

Yep.

Scrolling through my photostream yesterday morning, I loved seeing how many of my very best memories from the last 11 years include Holly. And even for the ones she missed (Katie’s wedding, trips to Madison, New York, Alaska, Europe, and Canada), the folks minding her here at home shared photos with me. She was a loving, faithful companion. and I’m (we’re) so grateful for the time she shared with us.

Kym sent me these words. They’re perfect, and the perfect way to close:

God turns clouds inside out to make fluffy beds for the dogs in Dog Heaven, and when they are tired from running and barking and eating ham-sandwich biscuits, the dogs find a cloud bed for sleeping.  God watches over each one of them.  And there are no bad dreams.

~Cynthia Rylant