Well, we lost a member of our family last week. We had to put down our beloved little Molly.

She was our 14 ½-year-old beagle. We took her in to the veterinarian last Friday when she started having changes to her body and, in general, she was just slowing down. Both eyes wetre blood shot and she had a tumor nearly the size of a golf ball hanging from her right rear leg.

But the biggest thing that told us something was wrong with her was that she would skip an occasional meal or she would take several hours to finish the same bowl of food.

Now this was the dog that had an appetite that wouldn’t quit. She always sat beside me on the floor always waiting for a tasty morsel to drop. See I was a soft touch and she knew she could eat just about anything. She loved to share my Cheerios every morning. I gave her about 10. And she ate everything I gave her with a gentle little sniff and bite.

She never bit my fingers.

We fed her a half cup of dry food every morning and the same at 4 p.m. If we were a bit late pouring it into her bowl, she would let us know. She would start pacing and whimpering.

You could almost set your watch to her. She would start pacing about 15 minutes before her meal time.

She also could be very sneaky about stealing our food and other things. Candy canes had to be put up out of her reach, and she loved mentholated cough drops.

We once came home to an empty plate of chocolate-rich brownies. Hearing stories of dogs eating chocolate could prove to be deadly for them, we kept a close watch on her for a few days. She never showed any ill effects from her sweet little experience.

She ate at least two other chocolate bars that we know of, and again, she never suffered any noticeable side effects.

We always had to immediately put our groceries into the refrigerator or the pantry when we came home from the grocery store.

If we left it unattended for any length of time she would try to get something of her own. Molly was a typical size beagle. But somehow she could get things off our granite countertops. Diane caught her in the act of taking a loaf of bread one day. Diane saw her raise up on hind legs, jump up as high as she could, twist her head and take a big bite to see if she could reach anything.

Last Saturday, we woke up to a terrible sight. Her eyes were glassy looking and she was blind her back legs could barely move and her belly was extremely swollen. And she wanted no part of her bowl of food! She also had difficulty breathing during the night.

Diane hugged me and we both agreed, “It’s time.”

We got a 10:30 appointment with the vet and she told us about the options available to us in putting her down and what to do with the ashes.

Tests showed she had lymphoma. The night before I think Molly knew that her time was near. We were all sitting on the couch with the television on and Molly scooted over next to me and laid her head down on my thigh. She had never done that before. She looked as if she wanted to say, “Make me feel better, dad.”

If there is a separate dog heaven, I feel sorry for the other dogs. You see, Molly doesn’t like other dogs. She loved people but she always went after other dogs, no matter their size. Incidentally, if any of you are thinking about getting us a new puppy, we will not accept your generous offer.

We plan to be traveling more now that Diane is retired. And a dog just isn’t in our plans.