Goodbye to Raja

Sadly, on Sunday morning, our dog Raja passed away. She had begun having seizures a couple months back and had been put on anti-seizure meds but slowly had began having breakthrough seizures. Finally on Saturday, they started comming one after another, she seemed to loose her eyesight and we knew she was going downhill fast. On Sunday morning she passed away and the boys and Albert burried her in the backyard under the weeping willow tree.
We will miss Raja, as we'd had her almost as long as we've had Brandon! She and Brandon are only six months apart in age. 8 years isn't all that old for a dog and we were hoping we'd have her around longer but we know that her passing is really best for her, as she had become increasingly uncomfortable and unable to control her bodily functions, meaning that lately, she'd been confined to the laundry room unless someone was available to watch her like a hawk.
During our family "funeral service" for Raja, during which my mom led the prayer via speaker phone from Tennessee (until the battery on the phone started to go dead and Nana got cut off), Brandon leaned forward and told the dog, "Well, Raja girl...I guess I won our bet."
I asked him what he meant and he explained to me that when he was six years old, and still fairly sick with Aplastic Anemia, he had made a bet with the dog (since they were the same age) that he would live longer than her. And now he had.
I was a little shocked by his statement and a little sad too. I assured him that none of us had ever had any doubt that he'd outlive the dog. He knows better though and I could tell that though he was sad that Raja had died, he was feeling a sense of accomplishment or maybe releif that he had in fact, won their bet.
Just as we were ending our family "funeral", Jackson broke out in song with .... "The Final Countdown"....as some of the kids were scooping the dirt over the dog. In an effort not to laugh, I quickly made my way back to the house to check on the babies. Seriously. Even burrying the dog becomes fodder for comic relief in our house.
Later that night, as I tucked Brice into bed, he asked me whether I thought the dog might jump back out of the ground. I assured him that she would not because she was dead. He demonstrated what he meant (Brice always demonstrates with gestures...he'll be great at games like these later in life) by barking and scratching his fingers and pretending to dig out of the ground. Again, I assured him that Raja was dead and would not be returning and thus could not come out of the ground. Brice disagreed. "Yes, she can Mom....Raja might get out. I saw her eyes open!"
Well, how do I explain that? Clearly he felt that since the dog's eyes were open, she couldn't be truly dead. He fortunately accepted the explanation that sometimes when people (or dogs) were dead, their eyes were still open.
So now its just Zoe!!! And to think that if I'd held out on getting a new puppy earlier in the year....we'd be home free right now!!!