I hope that you liked me

My mom called in tears last night to let me know that little Corky has been given 4 - 6 weeks to live. Little Corky is our Pomeranian. She's thirteen years old and is dying from lung cancer; the air was blue where she worked.

Apparently she will not die on her own, but her coughing will eventually get really bad so we will have to bring her to the vet to put her out of her misery. In the mean time she's not suffering so my parents won't do anything. My grandparents are coming for a visit in a week and a half and my mom wants for them to say goodbye. This dog is my mom's princess, you have to understand.

We got her in 1991 when I was about 8 or 9. I remember how it went; my parents went out to do some errands because my mother was having a party for her staff that evening. When they came back they brought with them a puppy. She was tiny and rust-coloured and my mom claims that I said something like "is it real?" but I have no memory of such a thing. They had seen her at a pet store at Place des Sources in Dollard, the same mall where the annual outdoor fair came, and they had fallen in love with her. My mom had the same kind of dog when she was a kid.

She came into the house and joined our sole cat, Blacky. She moved with us to Toronto and welcomed Kwinter, the daschund. Then Blacky was hit by a car and we got two more cats, Shadow and Tigger. Then we found Oliver and had to have him. During all of this time she ruled the roost, enjoying special treatment of sleeping upstairs with my parents and waking my mother up as early as four o'clock for breakfast. She barked for everything which is why I used to joke about her upcoming death. I'm not fond of barking.

She's a sweet dog though, despite the spoiled brattiness, so it's a shame she's dying. But she's had a long dog life and she'll be happier with Shadow, Tigger, Blacky, our multiple hamsters (Hammy, Fozzy, Mr. Squeaks, Andy), guinea pigs (Mary Ellen and Sweet Pea), birds (Sunny and Snowy), and fish (uhhh) up in pet heaven. Anyway, she has about four weeks to live so anyone who wants to pay her a good-bye visit should do so ASAP.

On the subject of death, a girl I know was justifying why she couldn't go to a funeral for someone who lived in her residence with her: "I wouldn't go to her birthday..."