gold to brown

We all know that the 2004 World Series began on Saturday, October 23rd. What few people know is that my wife Mary and I volunteer for the Australian Cattle Dog Rescue Association, and that we woke up at 4:00 in the morning on that same day to rescue a sweet little Cattle Dog named Gracie, along with a litter of seven puppies that were born just a few days earlier. It was a 5 1/2 hour drive from our home in Massachusetts to Newark, Delaware. With very little fanfare we gathered the mother and pups into our car and drove the same 5 1/2 hours back.

The runt of the litter, whom we named "Princess", died on Sunday night. Two more puppies, "Orlando" (named after Red Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera) and "Maggie" were rushed to Tufts Veterinary Hospital when they became lethargic and stopped suckling on Monday. Despite the intervention of one of the best animal care staffs in the country, both puppies died on Tuesday.

While we celebrated the first Red Sox World Championship in 86 years on Wednesday, we were also devastated by the loss of the puppies. We didn't pick them up from the hospital until this afternoon.

leaves turn from gold to brown —
I bury the dead puppies