It's been three years already. I think her spirit is happy now.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. 

This was taken, if memory serves, three years and a day ago. Not many days more, at any rate. Because three years ago today, at 4:16 PM, Lilith set off on her final journey.

You can't really tell from the photo, but her abdomen was hugely distended from the tumors that riddled her body. But Wings brought her a rawhide in the days just prior, and she lay happily on the dog beds on the kitchen floor, gnawing for all she was worth. 

She fought for nearly three full years, too, and hard. It was nothing less than I would've expected from our little pit-bull warrior girl, one who survived horrifying abuse in her first eight months of life only to escape and find Griffin and me. But the abuse scarred her psyche for life, and I'm convinced it hastened her physical illness, as well. 

I dreamed about her a few nights ago. That's rare; the dogs come to me in dreams, but not often, and when they do, I take notice. This time, she was undeniably happy — joyful, even, healthy and slender and full of energy, running here and there, back and forth, with her happiest doggy grin on her face. At one point, she jumped up into my arms as she did when she was young, and simply grinned at me, and as dreams go, it's hard to do much better than that.

At the appointed time, I went to where she rests and burned a little cedar for her, gave her some dry cedar and some tobacco and some water. Wings gave her some medicine yesterday. And I will weep tonight for this beautiful little girl who came to me so badly hurt and worked so hard to overcome it, this little warrior who Wings called Kachina, this little spirit girl. But they will be, partly, tears of joy, too: for the time we had with her, and because I think her fierce beautiful spirit is happy again now.

We love you, Lilith, our little Kachina girl.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.