We had to put our beagle to sleep today. At first, this was going to be an "in memorial" post, but then I realized that we're in the midst of 30 Days of Thanks , and how grateful I am that Zena was a part of our lives. So, as much as is possible, I'm going to take a few moments to appreciate the beautiful little beagle that was ours for the past two-and-a-half years. Thirty Days of Thanks, Day 8: Zena We brought her home on April 4, 2011. I remember the date clearly because it was the day before the local municipal elections, when we got a new mayor for the city of Champaign, and things were looking up. There's a picture somewhere of Ashley and Zena on the couch together, Ashley looking at the incoming election results on his laptop, Zena simply looking-on, probably trying to gauge who this new owner of hers was. She was 11, almost 12 when we got her. I wanted a dog and, eventually (thankfully), got Ashley to agree. We went to the humane society an...