I’m not the type to blog daily about my pets. Everyone who reads this blog knows my dog Butch, because he’s a ham who loves all the attention, but not that many people know his girlfriend Emma.

That’s her on the left. Cute, huh? You’d never know this photo was taken on a Necro-porn set.

Emma was a rescue, my little ‘Nam vet. She had a rough life before she came to me, neglected, emaciated and barely able to stand. She had this look in her eyes like she was witnessing a murder only she could see. I used to joke that she looked just like Shelley Duvall in The Shining, watching the axe come through the bathroom door.

She got more confident during the seven years she lived with me, but she was always skittish. She was never very affectionate with people, but she loved Butch and followed him everywhere.

A few months ago she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. I kept her comfortable for as long as I could, but over the weekend her seizures worsened and she stopped eating. This morning, I finally had to call a hit on her, like a mobster.

I’m a wreck right now. I’ve been through this before, but it never gets easier. I wish I believed in some kind of fairy tale happily ever after, but I don’t. All I can do is take comfort in the fact that she had the best life I could give her and didn’t suffer in the end.

I don’t know how my birthday month has turned into the season of death. I promise my next blog post will be funny and frivolous.