a single hair

It's been 2 1/2 weeks since our dog died. He was a sweet, sweet dog. He lived with us for almost 8 years ... our first "baby". Aside from being a loyal companion, protective of the children and the best home alarm system (ever) he also tended to shed .... a lot!

For the last 8 years I've been in the habit of Swiffering and/or vacuuming my floors at least daily. Now, I'm a little obsessive about my floors so having a furry friend who shed year round helped justify my OCD behavior. You would not believe the amount of fur I emptied from the vacuum on a daily basis ... out. of. control. (I'm on my sixth vacuum cleaner in as many years.) You may wonder if we ever took the time to groom our dog because with that much hair floating around we must have been neglectful in this area. Ha! We brushed and FURminator-ed (yes, that is a real thing) our beloved pooch two to three times per week but still, the shedding was unstoppable. And walking through a sea of dog fur did not seem to bother anyone except me! So .... I set about making sure that we had ONE room that was a 'no dog' zone. Since our dog had the IQ of a Harvard grad it was easy to train him to respect the threshold of this one room and I ... well.... I just LOVED being in that room. I liked seeing my pants stay fur-free, I liked not having to pull a stray dog hair out of my kid's mouth after he rolled on the floor, I liked knowing that if I drank a cup of coffee my cup would have ONLY coffee in it. It's the little things you know?!

Well ...

... for the last 2 1/2 weeks there has not been a lot of vacuuming. No dog hair floating in my coffee. No lint-rolling of my pants.

But, while straightening up the other day I came across a single hair ... a single dog hair ... left behind.

My heart just broke.

I miss our dog. I miss all that hair ... every vacuum clogging strand.

(Best dog ever: 12/23/2005 - 1/18/2014)