Saying Goodbye to Dutch

We are mourning the loss of our dog, Dutch.  He lived 13 years, a good, long life for a big dog, and I was around for all but the first 8 weeks of it.  He was an adorable puppy and grew into a very handsome dog.  He was already a mature dog when the girls came along, and he watched over them as they grew. In the last weeks of his life, they watched over and him as he struggled with liver failure and cancer.

About 10 weeks old, and growing fast.

He is laying in a similar spot in this picture,
at 3 months old, and the following picture,
 at 5 years old.  He grew to be a big dog.
Until he got sick a year ago, my goal was to keep
him under 100 pounds.

Elise and Dutch.
He let the girls sit on him until they got too big and heavy.

Elise and Dutch, just using him as a chair.

Dutch keeping an eye on baby Anja.

Like all labs, Dutch loved the water and it was hard to keep him out.

A fairly recent picture, before he started to get very weak.

After Dutch was gone, Elise said, "it feels like something is missing."  Yes, it really, really does.