Buried Him in the Garden.
The boys and Andi came home around noon thirty. We told them about Tooppy and wow – kids are really resilient. Tallis, our four year old, understand what’s going on and we all went down back to where Tupelo was resting on his old blanket on the lawn.
Tallis and Luca petted his fur, looked at his eyes, touched his teeth and lips, moved his rigor-stiffened legs. Generally got up close and person with their old friend in his new state. Then Tallis helped us pick out a spot for the grave. We decided after much discussion and walking the grounds to put him in the round herb garden out front.
So we dug. And dug, and dug…. Tallis with a hand trowel and me with a spade. Andi and Luca supervised (ok, Andi helped me dig… 🙂 ) We brought Toopy up from the back to “watch” while we dug. We took pictures of him on his blanket, of Tallis and I digging, of the grave.
We put a meal of dog food and a bowlfull of water (sans bowl) into the hole to feed him on his journey. The we also put in Baba’s ashes – Baba was Toopy’s brother whom we had put down and cremated *last* May. Finally, we lowered Tupelo in, tucked him neatly into the bottom of his grave and filled it in around him. Tallis and I worked together the whole time filling it in. Tal was a bit disturbed when I stepped into the half-filled hole to tamp down the earth – he was worried I’d wake up Tupelo and scare him.