14 years ago,
in 2010,
we rescued the best pup both Jim and I have ever had,
our dear Sophie.
She was 6 months old and clung to both of us (but mostly to Jim)
at the rescue place,
so we knew she was supposed to be ours.
Sophie was so cute and funny and loved to be snuggled under or between things,
but she hated her baths and clippings.
She loved to play fetch and always brought the ball back and dropped it for more.
She slept with us every night.
And loved Xmas time up at the cabin snuggled on the couch next to the fireplace.
She was always up for a walk,
and loved car rides,
especially in my VW Bug with the top down.
Treats were a favorite,
actually any food was,
and it was so hard for us not to feed her from our plates.
Snuggling up after a delicious meal..
She'd let me dress her up in her raincoats but never seemed too happy about it.
And she would make her toys squeak on demand.
And every nite she's sit by my side as I worked on one project or another.
She was so much company for the both of us.
So it is with extreme sadness and grief
that I share our sweet, sweet girl is with the angels.
She suffered a series of seizures that buckled her under herself laying in her urine,
and she was unable to walk, eat or drink.
Of course we rushed her to our local animal emergency
where she seemed to rally and walked slowly around the place.
They advised us to take her home and see how she did that evening.
But after 3 more seizures that night we knew it was close to the end.
And she had actual tears that were running down her face after the last seizure,
and we couldn't take seeing her in such pain, confusion and sorrow,
so back to the vet we all went for a grueling and heartbreaking goodbye.
(our last good bye)
Both Jim and I have had to put several animals down in our lifetimes,
but Sophie was the most brutal of them all.
She was our child that we never got to have together as a couple.
Extremely loving and loyal to the end.
Our dear, dear baby girl.
Sophie always seemed so very human,
and more than once I felt in my heart that my mother sent her to us.
And I swear she would communicate with us,
such a smart pup especially when she would run out of water.
She'd stand between the two of us and point her nose to her water dish.
And she never had an accident in the house until her last day with us.
At the end,
with her eyes,
she told us how much she loved us,
and that she understood it was time for her to leave,
and how sad it was for her.
She was stronger then both Jim and I.
The both of us were such a mess.
And we cried for days afterwards.
I just know my mother met her as she left us.