I almost hesitate to post this because by now everyone knows. I'm not posting it as news but because of my completely unexpected reaction. Today after lunch I returned to my desk and decided to check cnn.com before I got back to work. Of course the lead story was Barbaro.

I've been following this story closely since Barbaro's injury in May. I knew of the setbacks this month but it just never occurred to me that he would lose this battle. I took it for granted that he would bounce back again. And so when I read the headline I sat at my desk and cried.

What an incredible creature he was. What an inspiration.