It’ s been a long time since I posted anything here, and in the intervening period Sophie has finally died of that bone disease, and her great heart just 
went out. I know she died trying in the end to maintain that dignity, that last instinct to not lay in your own shit, to at least be able to lay in a clean place. Her poor body was twisted away from those immobile, unforgiving hips, her old face in the dust finally.
It was a hard illness, starting slowly when she began to limp, but it closed with devastating speed through the last six months. We went around in a wheelbarrow when we walked with the other dogs, walked around the place and up across the papayas because she cried so piteously when we left her behind. She must have been in such pain all that time, poor girl. She never complained, she was all courage and soul.
Bye Sophie, my love,
Under the Volcano 