Yesterday was a sad day for the Few family. He laid to rest our beloved dog Marley. Marley came to join our family about 5 yrs ago. He was a collie and looked just like Lassie. He was 12 yrs old when he died. Collie's only live to be about 13. he had a good life and was such a great dog. He was our baby when we didn't have any babies. He lived in the house and was spoiled wrotten. Marley loved to play. We bought him all kinds of toys and I think he was the happiest when it was just him and Antione, or me, playing with him. We used to tease him and say" Marley, where's the kitty, where's the kitty"? and I would meow like a little kitten. He would just start barking and go over to the back door and look out the blinds, looking for the kitty. Without fail he would bark and go over to the door every time. Good times! Marley was also incredibly intelligent. He knew several commands. Sit. Shake. Lie Down. Stay. Come here. He was so obedient. Of course, it helped that he would get treats. He loved treats, but only Pupperoni! Everyone loved Marley, old and young. People would always comment that he was such a pretty dog. He loved the attention. Marley gave a lot of love in return. He seemed to always know when I had a bad day and he was very protective of me, especially when I was pregnant. If I started attacking Antione (in a playful way, of course) and say "Help, Help" he would always bark at Antione, always. I used to love that. You always knew if Marley did something he wasn't supposed to, like get in the laundry (hey, he's a dog and dog's are perverts). He would be standing in the doorway and his ears would be hanging down. You'd say," Marley, what did you do?" He would just hand his head down in shame. The first signs of Marley being sick happened about a year and a half ago. We took him in for minor surgery on his eye. Two days later he was still lethargic and weak and would barley eat anything. he wasn't peeing either. We took him in to the vet and they found he had a tumor on his kidney about the size of a tennis ball. They had to put a catheter in his bladder to drain it. We thought we would have to put him down then but over the next few days he got better and better and was like his old self. I told the vet but he said, he will get sick again. I thought he meant sooner than later but it never happened so we didn't really think about it. About six months after that we took him into get groomed and ended up having to shave him. His hair was so matted and dirty they said nothing else could have been done. I felt so bad when I saw him. He just looked at me and I could tell that he felt like he was "naked." When Antione saw him for the first time he laughed so hard. In, fact most people did. They didn't shave his head or ears so it looked like Marley on a pig's body. Seriously, his body was pink and he was so skinny without all that hair. We thought it would grown back in a few months. But it didn't. And gradually over time he looked skinnier and skinnier. We didn't realize it but he was sick again. Lately it didn't seem like he had been eating very much. Then a couple of days ago when I opened the garage in the morning, instead of him standing there waiting to go out, he was standing over his bed and I could tell something was wrong. Antione said the same thing when he came home and saw him. He was struggling to walk and appeared very weak. He was also leaking urine, just like he did when he was sick before. I knew then that we needed to take him in to the vet and it might be time to let him go. So much easier said than done. Antione took him in yesterday about 3pm. The doctor said Marley was very sick! The tumor had grown to the size of a small melon. He had lost 35lbs since his last appt. almost half of his weight. He was just skin and bones. There was nothing we could do nor nothing we could have done. It was time to say goodbye to one of our family members. Antione spent the next hour with him, talking to him and saying goodbye. We both cried. It's was hard to imagine our home without Marley. Even now, when I came home from work this morning, I expected to see him run out and greet me the way he always did, but he wasn't there. We know Marley is in a better place and he is happy now. We couldn't stand to see him suffer anymore. We will be together with him again someday. And when the time is right we will get another dog. No one will ever replace Marley, though. He was one in a million!! We will always love you Marley and will never forget you. You will be missed.