I'll make it a little easier.
This is CoCo. Our Lady of the Red Dirt. This hill of red dirt is what top soil looks like here. It is waiting to be spread on the front yard of the House on the Hill after we do some more work to the outside. CoCo thought the Man had put it there just for her and it became her favorite place to lay. Kind of a Queen of the Hill thing. M became CoCo's Man when she came to live with us and she adored him. She chose him to be her person and wouldn't give J or me a second look if he was close.
M said if she had been ours as a pup, he would have named her Georgia because she matched the red dirt of the south and Georgia is prettier than Bama.
Of course she didn't live with us as a pup, she was my Mother's. She was a big pup. She was half Chocolate Labrador and half Rottweiler, a Rottador. So she was named Cocoa because of her love of chocolate. Mother's love not Coco's. CoCo loved Mother more than she ever again loved anybody or anything and would sit with her massive head on Mother's knee while Mother sat and stroked it and talked to her. And it was a massive head. The big pup became a big dog, around 90 pounds at her healthiest and at the shoulder she stood about 3 inches taller than Molly, our 70 pound black Lab. I have looked high and low for a photo of her with Mother and I can not find one. If any of my family has one, I would love a copy.
When she came to live with us, I changed the spelling of her name to suit her personality. Because she was such a lady; so dignified, gentle, kind and patient. More CoCo Chanel than a can of powdered chocolate.
She loved the GrandGirlies and would let them do just about anything to her.
Like pack her for a hike.
Or be led on the leash for hours, when she did not really like the leash. But she did love the beach!
But still this did not compare to the love she had for the Man. Of course, the Man drove Big Orange and she felt it her solemn duty to accompany Big Orange and the Man wherever they went.
Almost as much as she loved the Man and Big Orange, she loved being with her pack and would play like a pup with them. Even though she never played like this as a pup because she had to take care of Mother.
CoCo had been sick off and on for a couple of weeks. She would get better and then she would get sick again. Then she would get better. In the middle of last week, she disappeared. We looked for her but did not get too concerned, she had done this before. She loved our hill and the forest and she loved to wander in them. She came home Saturday night and did not look very good. She asked to come into the house Sunday afternoon. She didn't like the house, but the Man was in the house and it was obvious she wanted to be close to him so we let her in. Through the afternoon and evening it became obvious that she was very ill. I took her to the vet first thing this morning and he told me she was in liver failure. She was 10 and kind of young for it. As my family knows, she had survived a couple of severe illnesses and he said those probably advanced the aging process of her liver. We could have treated her and extended her life for a couple of months - maybe. I chose not to do that. CoCo left us this morning at about 9:30 with me stroking her big head. I'm choosing to believe that she once again has that big loving head on Mother's lap. Because in my world, heaven just wouldn't be heaven without our Best Friends.
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