This is hard

No. 1 and No. 2 here.

This is hard. We are so very sorry to have to tell you this, dear friends on the interweb. It is with a heavy heart that we must let you know that we have said a tearful farewell to our beloved Willie.

He had had it hard of late, but did not complain. He was a brave dog and he stayed with us as long as he could, which is all we ever asked of him from the time he was a puppy. That little dog lived a large life, but in the end his struggles had become more than anybody or any dog should have to endure. He enriched our lives for nearly 17 years and never said a cross word. We loved him more than words can say. The ways in which he touched our lives cannot be counted. Before we got him as a four-month-old, we liked dogs. He turned us into total dog people.

To you, who have been Willie’s fans and who have read his stories over the years, we want to send a huge (!) huge (!!) THANK YOU for sharing Willie’s journey. He enjoyed hearing from you so much.

Bertram Wilberforce Woofster Mackenzie, 1994 - 2011

No. 2 wrote a poem.

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Now I have come to the end of the happy days,
And I am blessed that they were so many.
And now I have come to the end of the sad days,
And I am blessed that they were so few.
I will leave an empty place in your heart,
But that place will be filled with love,
And when all the empty places in the world have been filled,
Then we will be together again.

– Dana Mackenzie

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For fifteen years we’ve had a message on our answering machine that goes like this: “If you’d like to leave a message for Kay or Dana, please start talking at the tone. If you want to leave a message for Willie, please start barking at the tone.” You’d be surprised how many people bark! It always makes us smile.

We will leave Willie’s stories here on the interweb for other dogs and their humans to discover. And if you want to leave a message for Willie…

A fond farewell,
All the Mackenzies

Edited: December 8th, 2011