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Radish for the memories

One morning, I was cutting up radishes and I was suddenly reminded of my dog Trisha. Trisha was a Labrador Shar Pei that we lovingly called a LaPei.  When I would be prepping radishes, she would sit by my side, and look up at me with her limpid brown eyes. I couldn't resist and would toss her at least one radish.  She would chew it up and would even stick around for the wispy roots and short green stocks. With Trisha around, there was no waste of this vegetable.
Sadly, she crossed the rainbow bridge over a year ago. I thought if I evoked even the tiniest of memories, I would immediately miss her  and my eyes would fill with jagged tears. I feared remembering Trisha would conjure up the images of the last days of her life, where her black fur was tinged with white and arthritis had changed her gait to a painful hobble.  However, as I stood in the kitchen, this memory washed over me in a comforting warmth.  My vision became blurry from tears, but these tears didn't sting. I was actually smiling from this reminiscing. By allowing myself to think about Trisha, I knew I was going to be okay and would welcome other opportunities of remembering her. 
As I put away the radishes, I noticed that I had cut away the bitter bits and kept the savory selections, in more ways than one.
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