Parris at our baby shower in CA when we were pregnant with Gabriel.
Our Parris has passed away. She is/was such a great dog. She loved us and we loved her. Yesterday, at about 5:00 in the evening, Parris got out of Edward's mom's house in California where we were visiting for the week. She saw a dog across the busy street that Susan lives on and went for it. She was hit immediately by a car going about 35-40 mph. She was alert, but not moving at all. As quickly as we could we got her to an animal hospital. The whole way we just kept talking to her and trying to keep her calm. She just kept looking at us with her sad eyes trying to figure out what was going on. They told us she didn't look good, but they would do what they could to stabilize her right away. She was immediately given morphine for her pain. When the doctor brought us back in to talk to us he began telling us about her condition. Her back legs were damaged very badly and her lungs were so badly bruised that they would soon fail. As he started talking to us, the technician came in and told him that she was starting to go. Her heart had stopped. The doctor told him to start CPR, and we told him no. We knew she wasn't going to make it, and we didn't want her in any more pain. We lost her at about 6:30 Thursday, October 14, 2009. She was 7 1/2 years old.
Please continue to pray for Gabriel especially. He saw her get hit, and took it pretty badly. When we got home that night he asked if she was all better. We told him she had to stay with the doctors, but that they would take good care of her. He didn't say anything all day until we were aout 10 minutes from home tonight. He asked if she was going to be home. We told him that she was still with the doctors in CA. He then asked if the policeman got the lady. We didn't even realize that he saw who hit her until then. Ed had taken the kids in so quickly we didn't know he saw more than just her getting hit. He was very sad in the car and kept telling us that he wanted to go see her. It is going to be very hard for him. He loved her as much as we did.
Parris was our first baby. I remember the day Edward and I went to the humane society just to "look" at dogs. I don't remember why we went, but we saw our Parris (her name then was Charlie) and we just couldn't say good bye. She was just about a year old. Somehow we ended up taking her home with us (to a house full of 4 other adults and 2 dogs). We were crazy to do it, but we fell in love with her immediately. She was ours.
Parris loved chasing birds, jumping the fence to roam the neighborhood, jump on everyone that came to the door, and bark at anything she was unsure about (including all night thunderstorms). She slept with us each and every night (even though Gabriel has been asking her to sleep with him). Parris loved visiting Susan in CA, and would typically whine the last 20 minutes every trip because she knew we were close. She just loved Susan's big backyard full of birds to chase and grass to sniff. She ate any food we left out including half a pizza just a week ago. She had the softest ears and such a sweet spirit about her. We will forever miss her.
If you have a story about Parris to share, please do so in the comments. We would love to hear them.
A few weeks ago I came home from a run and Gabriel had my camera. I was sitting down when 
