I thought I’d bring another sweet soul to the pages of Earth to Holly, as Lucy has kindly agreed to share her space with a precious being whom she never met.

This is our golden retriever, Emma, who passed away four years ago, June 8. Adopted from Prince William County animal control in Manassas, Virginia, on February 19, 1994, which was unfortunately not a no-kill shelter, she was scheduled to be put down the following day as she had gone unclaimed for several weeks. I would love to think that we saved her life, but actually, a girl who came into the shelter a few minutes after us had also come to see her. She surely would’ve taken her had it not been for us.

Emma was a stray, so we knew nothing of her past, but our veterinarian guessed that she was probably around four years old. While some of her behavior hinted at unkind treatment in the past—you could feel the bb in her back where someone had shot her—her indoor manners were excellent. She was never interested in playing with toys, other dogs or the water, so we assumed that she had never been taught to play or socialized when she was young. But she was so sweet and very smart and cunning, much like Lucy. And she had an excellent nose. We would quietly unwrap a piece of chocolate and before we knew it, there she was! Of course, she couldn’t have chocolate, but she never gave up. And she would counter-surf…a stick of butter…a loaf of french bread. Once she got hold of a large Ghirardelli chocolate bar and ate the whole thing, very carefully extracting the chocolate and leaving the wrapper in near perfect condition. She did the same with a whole sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints. And then there was the large canister of fish food flakes. We were lucky that she never suffered any consquences from her choice of cuisine.

And she favored W, something that was hard to accept as well as forget, as insensitive ones never failed to dwell on that fact. I know Em’s feelings were instinctual and not personal, though (I think?). For whatever reason, she just felt more comfortable and safe with him, and it was obvious that she needed that.

In this photo, taken by W in the summer of 2001 on Virginia’s Northern Neck, Em watches as one of the local watermen checks his crab pots.