Had a special night last night with Maria and Frieda at the Red Fox Bookstore. She was great, and so were the people who came to hear her.  Might try to do that again. We’ve added another stop to the “Rolling Rose Tour” – December 14, 7 p.m., at Hubbard Hall, Cambridge, N.Y., courtesy of the Battenkill Bookstore, just before Christmas.

Got a call from a friend whose sister lost her husband recently, and is living with his dog, who is paralyzed in both rear legs and has to be carried outside to eliminate. She has moved into the basement to sleep near the dog.  She insists the dog is happy and won’t consider putting the dog down. He is worried about her and asked my advice. She has to make her own decisions, I said. If it were me, I would put the dog down.

It sounded extreme to me. In researching my animal grieving book, I am learning that some of the most severe cases of animal grieving come when the end of the dog’s life coincides with the loss of someone close. Hard to let go, and in these cases, much harder. I believe dogs ought to live the natural lives of dogs, and when they can’t, I think it’s time for me to love them by letting go of them. Dogs aren’t “happy” or “sad” in the human context. Hard for me to believe a dog who can’t move on his or her own is “happy” or living the natural life of a dog. But that is me. I learned in hospice that people have to grieve in their own way, at their own pace.

I am working hard these day on letting go. Getting those old arguments, anxieties,  hurts and debates of my head. Hard work. Good work.

Back to Glens Falls tonight with my camera. Off to the Rouse farm later today. Working on a short story about a dog who lives in the wild near a suburb.