It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that this morning, I held our precious Andi as she made her way to the Rainbow Bridge to be with her brothers Columbo and Buck and sister Patches and her long time friend, Reba.  When I came downstairs she was lying on the family room floor, obviously in some sort of distress and I suspected she was bloating--a huge fear of any basset owner.  I rushed her to the Emergency Animal Hospital but she was already crashing...apparently she had several cancerous tumors around her liver and stomach, and one of them had ruptured and she was bleeding out.  Emergency surgery was not even an option at that point, so I had the vet give her the euthanasia shot so she wouldn't suffer any longer, and held her in my arms as she slipped peacefully away.  This all happened very fast--she was fine earlier, and we had absolutely no idea she had this cancer...she never showed any symptoms.  This beautiful girl, one of our BHRA fosters who we ended up adopting, had so many gremlins when she came back into rescue for the second time--and over time she became confident and trusting and simply adored Earl, despite her fear of men.  She was even the perfect lady at the annual basset bash this past May.  Andi was funny, could be a real clown and was very much the grand dam of the house.  I cannot even imagine how I'm going to tell Earl when he gets home this evening..... Andi was his special girl and our house will be immensely quieter now.  So say a little prayer for Andi as she journeys over that rainbow.