Finally

This the rug in my office. It may not be clear from the photo, but those are little pinkish spots on it.  They appeared yesterday, and I knew instantly what they signified.

After almost 14 and a half months, Miss Darby was finally going into heat. When I swabbed her swollen vulva with a kleenex, the lack of any trace of blood on it mystified me. But Becca, the CCI puppy coordinator, urged me to bring Darby in to the Oceanside center.  Once there, Becca took her back to the vet tech for confirmation of what was going on.  A few minutes later, she reappeared dogless, announcing that Darby hadn't quite started, but the cellular changes confirmed that her full-on cycle would begin within a day or two.

So she's gone. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. Becca said we probably wouldn't get her back until around April 5-6 (22-23 days from now).  I'm surprised by how lonely the house feels already. Steve and I both miss her, though we're less sure about how Tucker feels. He's going to get a lot of undisturbed napping in between now and then.