Along with the sunshine, there has to be a little rain sometimes

My subject line is an excerpt from one of my favorite remake songs by Martina McBride, "Rose Garden," off of her Timeless CD. It's an appropriate sentiment for today which was Day 2 of our Northwest Paper Chase. We covered a little less ground today in terms of driving distance, but we still managed to visit six scrappy stores. All of them were quite diverse and different enough from each other that I was able to grab a little something from each one. I don't have any pictures to post of my loot today, but suffice it to say that I came home with a lot more scrappy goodness, and that was my sunshine.

My rain today came in the evening time when my mom phoned me while we were on our way to Shipwreck beads. Yesterday, my mom took my little dog, Noel, to the vet office because her body temperature was so low. She had been quite sick on and off for the past few weeks, but her condition baffled the vets. She spent the night in the hospital where they did a barium enema to see if they could find the source of her illness. Finally, they spotted the problem - a tumor on her rectum that was so hidden that all other previous tests were unable to locate it. The surgery to remove the tumor was risky and included breaking her pelvis to get to it. After learning the news, my parents came to the difficult decision to let her go. My mom waited until the end of the day to tell me, and I broke down in tears in the car. I was able to say goodbye to my little Noel over the phone, telling her that I loved her very much. That she was such a good girl. That I would see her one day. To please rest in peace knowing we did everything we could for her. My mom said she twitched her ear to acknowledge that she heard me over the phone, and then she was gone. I have been crying for the better part of the last six hours. Noel was such a special little dog to us. Travis and I found her abandoned in a parking lot in Reno in November 2002, and I named her Noel since it was the Christmas season. We rushed her to my wonderful vet who told us she was emaciated and dehydrated. She spent three days in the vet ICU in an icubator, and by day 3, she was standing on her own. She was a fighter. She was a special little girl. A year later, we decided that Noel would fit right in at my parent's house with my two childhood chihuahuas. My parents were thrilled to have her, and I was happy that she could provide them companionship, especially after my two chihuahuas passed away. She lived a happy life, and I hope that she knew how much she was loved.

I'll see you over the rainbow bridge, my little angel.

PS - I wanted to let you all know that I very much appreciate all the nice comments you leave on my blog, and I was hoping to catch up on my "blog-hopping" this evening, but as you can see, I've had a rough night. I hope to visit all of your blogs soon to see what all of you have been up to.