Sympathy cards outnumber the holiday cards

As of today, sympathy cards for Daisy far outweigh our holiday cards. The Daisy flower arrangement is still blooming and someone commented on the number (30 in one place!) of responses to my status update on facebook that Daisy had died. My friend Ginny said Daisy truly was a loved dog. Social media (facebook, blogs, etc) plus having written a book about my crew, have allowed me to share some of our lives with people around the world. I never ever thought we would lose Daisy so early. I finished sending out our 120 holiday cards today. People often tell me they look forward to seeing what I create each year- from the card with photos of the dogs to the letter with their antics and the photo stamp with a photo of someone or something. This year I had gone with one photo of the dogs that also had Joe and Devlan. It was taken in the summer and all of them were in the pool (except Chaco and Daisy who were poolside as usual). I bought labels with Daisy and put Daisy's name on the card as I usually do with the rest of us in the Linn-Gust clan. How could I not? I really thought she'd make it through to the new year- or maybe I was just hopeful. Still, writing the letter was difficult since I had to do it just a few days after her death. It was hard to even remember much of what happened this year before her diagnosis. As I learned with my sister's suicide almost 17 years ago, these losses happen to us and give us an opportunity to teach and help others. I'm sure Daisy is here with me in her own way, nudging my armpit with her cold nose saying, "Duh! That's what I've been trying to tell you!"