Its been over two weeks, but with great sadness our boxer Braxton has passed away.
On Sep. 20th we left to go to karate practice and home church not realizing that the back gate hadn't been closed properly. All the dogs got out but thankfully our neighbor on the corner was able to get Bella and the 3 puppies back in the yard. Braxton ran across the street and wouldn't come to the neighbor. That night we didn't get home from home church until after 11pm, we found a note on our door and went out searching. We called for him, drove around the neighborhood, waited at the end of alleys calling for him.
We stopped at midnight but we were right back outside calling at 5:30am. We walked up and down the street, calling him, carrying his lease for when we found him. He was wearing his harness with his name tag on it.
 By mid morning I had called animal control and humane society, posted a picture ad on craigslist.
No one had seen him.
I had driven down every alley in our neighborhood and asked almost every person I saw in their yard.
By Friday night, I was stressed and worried, really worried.
Saturday morning we posted flyers with his picture around our area and then we had to finish getting ready for Kelly's birthday party.
It was during the party, when a friends son walked over that he spotted Braxton.
His body was still across the street where he was last

seen. It looked like he had just laid down and went to sleep, he wasn't hit by a car. We didn't see him because he was between a tree and a rock and with his coloring he blended right into the environment.
I tore myself up over this, thinking that he was within hearing distance of our house that whole time. He was about 4-5 houses away. That he was so close this whole time and how many times had we drove past. When we had done our morning walk on Friday we walked up one side and down the other but just as we reached our street we cut back across the street toward our house, it we had kept going straight we might have seen him.
All we can figure and hope was that he passed before we even got home. It has broken my heart and I have been so angry. I could understand an accept it better if Brax had died in the yard or on his dog bed but not being with us and yet so close just tears me up. As Rob said to me Sunday morning, he lives on in his puppies and I'm not about to let any of them go. They have been around long enough that I'm attached. Its kinda crazy with 4 dogs and our yard will never win any awards but I don't care. I see a little bit of Brax in all of them and they are family. He was a great dog and like most boxers noisey but thankfully not a big licker, just a big lover. He was 7 years old and his age was becoming a factor, his coat had gone from fawn and white to lots of white, he preferred to sleep on his bed or on the floor on my side of the bed. I loved that I could leave him in the house for a few hours without having to worry about anything being eaten or destroyed.
As I've written this, Bella has tried to crawl into my lap a few times, she has been great to hug on when I start to feel really sad. This time has also reminded me to take more pictures with our pets and of our pets. Because they are such a part of our lives they deserve some photo love.
*Carrie*