Hurricane Caden

Has hit as a Category 5 in my basement.

We tried to get him to the playground before the rain started, but Dakota had several accidents over night that took a while to clean up and by the time we headed out, the rain had begun.

Little boy inside all day. I hate that. I can't stand having him cooped up like a chicken-mill chick. He has successfully blown up the basement, but the main floor is still mainly under my control.

Hurricane Irene has walloped the coast, but we are only getting a day of rain, modest wind, with the threat of total destruction. I don't see it happening.

As I mentioned, Dakota is not doing very well. She stopped eating Thursday night and we thought that was it, but very early Friday morning she began to eat again. She has terrible diarrhea and unfortunately, it strikes at night and we have lovely accidents to clean every morning.

What quality of life is this for her? Not a very good one. We are hoping that we can get her tummy under control with Pepcid and see if we can't revive her a bit. But I have a horrible, sinking feeling that sometime in the next week we will be saying goodbye to her.

It has been over 7 years that we moved in together and combined our animals. 7 years that we've defined ourselves as 3 dogs/2 cats people. These 5 animals gave us happiness and fulfillness during the years we struggled with infertility and the moments that I thought they would be the only babies I ever had. Now, just 2.5 years after welcoming Caden to our home, we have lost one with another close behind.

It is really so hard to say goodbye.