Amstel was a beauty. Clearly strong-hearted despite the birth defect. Letting go of an animal that has given you unconditional love is a hard one, but watching them suffer equally so. I'd like to think his spirit lives on in every beagle now. I can't really remember my first pet, but I had a dog in my teens that set the bar so high for every pet to come. Colby was big, ole black lab, the size of a bear. The sweetest big lug you could imagine, but a gourmand to say the least. He ate an econo tub of vaseline once. He paid the price; his regularity became an emergency if you get my smelly drift.