Ash and I feared this day would come eventually, but cancer, and how swiftly it destroys, was not even a consideration. If I can offer anything more, take your pet to the vet, often and spend quality time every chance you get. You don't want to regret those opportunities once they've passed.

The photo was taken by a very close family friend. We loved it so much, we had it printed on canvas. I'm in the process of making a frame and matching urn for it.

Its been four days now. I wrote this in a stream of consciousness on Saturday, never having any intention of anyone else reading it. After a few days, the hurting is a little less intense and I hoped there was something in my thoughts that might help another. I appreciate you contributing to that healing.

The policing of protest in America makes it clear that protest has become mere ritual, a farce, and that, by definition, it becomes illegal if it threatens to change anything or inconvenience anyone. In time, all the police announcements came to say the same thing to me. “You may go through your constitutional ritual,” they intoned, “but it must stop before anything of consequence happens.” We must, above all, preserve everything as it is.

This is the lesson to be learned.