With a dog you can move a herd of cattle. Or as a boy you can lose an afternoon along Contraband Bayou looking for pirate treasure with only the company of your dog. As companions and helpmates in our lives dogs are so intertwined as to often seem yet another appendage. Or, as is often said, they seem a member of the family; albeit a member who sleeps rough outside in most weather.

That appendage was severed this week when we had Tip put down. She was fifteen, a loyal companion and friend. Her life span covered the purchase of the farm in 1999 to this past week. She was my loyal companion by her choice and insistence, sharing every walk I’ve ever taken on this farm. If you enter her name in the search box on this blog she showed up frequently in these pages. A few of my favorite entries:  Dog Days of Summer, Tip: an aging stockdog, Two Dog Tales. But her name showed up casually in dozens of entries as befits a dog so central to our lives.

I doubt I’ll leave the porch again without pausing and waiting for her to rise up and join me.