Cody

Our dog of 15 years passed away yesterday at the vet's with my dad, her best friend, holding her. I was just about to turn 13 when my sister and I picked her up that summer in my mom's minivan and brought her and her cute puppy-ness home (everyone else was away for the weekend)-- she smelled so good and sat on my lap for the drive, even though we had a crate for her in the back. Her name became Cody, and from my memory, we had a hard time coming up with the name that fit her, but one day we put together Biz+Mark, which led to Bismark, North Dakota, which led to Dakota which led to Cody. Or Dakota Lin when we were pretending to be mad at her--Jen added her middle name (whose middle name is also Lin). Dad said she was cheerful as always, and "still beautiful on her last day with her blond coat and apricot ears, well-brushed with the Christmas gift from Mark." She was over 100 in human-equivalent years, and had had problems with her deteriorating hips for the past couple of years which made walking extremely difficult; I don't know how she held on for so long. Most of you knew her. She was great. I said goodbye to her last summer, just in case. That doesn't seem to help.

I took this picture on my phone on May 11, 2008. Gracious, I miss her.