R.I.P. Chelsea, 1990?-2006.

They say these things happen in threes. The oldest of the dogs at the farm, Chelsea, had to be put to sleep this week. I’m not even exactly sure about her age – I could swear she was older than 15 or 16 years old. She was super-lovable, and would always follow us around – even as she got older and that became more difficult for her to do.

Even with the ever-changing cast of characters at the farm, Chelsea was everybody’s friend. In this one shot, you can see Chelsea holding court with Annie the deer, Chloe and Misha (white puffball of a cat at far right) in attendance.

We got to “dogsit” Chelsea numerous times, from here in our first apartment after we got married, all the way up to a week with her at our current house with Xena. Chloe had the advantage here – Iago and Othello had never met a dog before, so they were super-cautious if they had to walk past her while she was asleep.

And when Chelsea woke up, the boys were even more on edge.

Though I guess from Iago’s perspective, you can sorta see why.

Iago needn’t have worried. Chelsea’s best friend at the farm was Macho, a big grey badass of a cat who was more than willing to roughhouse with her. (This picture may not look good, but trust me, they were having fun!)
We’ll miss the big black dog. 🙁