A Tribute to My Best Dog

I have been putting this post off, because I knew it wouldn't be easy, therefore the entire blog has been in a holding pattern...

On November 1st, I said good-bye to Dakota. She was in so much pain and was having lots of difficulty doing normal old dog activities, like going to the bathroom. Yeah, yeah I know she was just a dog, but she was most definitely a family member.

I have never had to make a decision like that and I don't want to ever have to do it again. We found out back in March that she had cancer and they gave her less than a month and she was doing very well until the last month or so.

I found Dakota almost twelve years ago eating out of the dumpster at O'rears Pastry Shop, where I was working at the time. I was a freshman at Purdue and living in an apartment on the south side, where we were not supposed to have pets. I kept her anyways all the while my mom telling me that I needed to find her a home, when I moved home to my parents house that summer she went with me, my home was her home. 

I moved into the sorority that fall and she stayed with my parents. While settling in to Mom and Dad's house she went through her teething stage and ate a couch, yes she chewed up all the cushions on the couch in the upstairs great room. She endured an ACL surgery on one of her rear legs, ripped open her side on a barbed wire fence and had to have stitches and I am pretty sure my mom ran over her because we had to take her to the ER for another open wound and stitches.

I held onto her through all of that and she stood by my side through my extremely emotional senior year at Purdue. She was the best pal a girl could ask for and was very loyal. As I have moved around through the last twelve years she has always been very protective of me and served as a great sense of security for me.

(Doing what she did best, taking up her space on the couch. This was the loveseat that matched the couch she destroyed.)

 

It was so hard to say good-bye and I miss hearing her tail thumping the floor when I wake up in the morning and her "talking" and telling me when it was time for her to eat or that she needed to go outside. I found some old videos of her today and it was so good to see her so full of all the energy that she once had. I know that she is barking at squirrels and the wind up in pet heaven.

We were able to bury her with Truck on the edge of our yard where I am planning to create a flower garden and place the stepping stones that Bradley and I made.

 

 

(The picture at the top was taken in 2003, these two were taken within the last few months. I think the boys made her
gray.)

 

Dick (our Boston Terrier) also misses Dakota terribly, they had become each others doggy soul mates over the last nine years.

 

 



Our Horrible Halloween

This year's Halloween is one that I never want to relive.

The night before Halloween, mom was in town and we had been  down to Lafayette to go shopping and when we arrived home we found Truck (our yellow lab puppy) with large swollen spot on the left side of his face under his ear. So I called our vet at home and told her what was going on and she said to give him and aspirin and as long as he continued to breathe okay we could bring him in first thing in the morning Halloween day, Wednesday.

 Dan took him in Wednesday morning and the vet said that he had all of the signs of puppy strangles, a rare puppy autoimmune disease, or he had some sort of an abscess that had become severely infected. She wanted to keep him for 24 hours and observe him and give him antibiotics. I called at 2pm that day and he was still doing the same and still hadn't eaten anything.

Dan was on second shift that night and had left for work. So at 4:00pm, I started getting the boys ready in their costumes and we snapped some pictures on the porch before we left.

 

 

Our first stop was "Aunt" Cathy's house at around 4:45 and as I was walking the boys into her house my phone rang. It was the vet and she had horrible news, she said she had just gone back to check on Truck and there was blood coming from his mouth and nose. She said I could come get him and take him home and probably wouldn't make it or transport him to Purdue Emergency Vet Clinic where he could be in the ICU.

So much for trick or treating, I went to get Truck, took him to Lafayette and my dad met me there with dinner for the boys.

I got Truck admitted and they wanted to sedate him and do a complete oral exam and see if they could figure out what was going on. The vet said it might take a bit so I loaded the boys back up and tried to squeeze in a few trick or treat stops for the boys so their Halloween wasn't completely ruined.

We got to my Grandpa's in West Lafayette and the vet called and said that I had some decisions to make. He could continue with a full surgery and something needed to be done quickly because Truck wasn't breathing well and we would be looking at spending around $3000 just for the surgery and it may not be something they could fix or treat so we might still loose Truck or our other option was euthanasia. I called Dan and we chose the second choice.

My Dad went to the clinic and took care of the details, the boys and I went to my Aunt and Uncle's. Dad followed us home and brought Truck home to be buried.

It was absolutely horrible and the thing that made it more awful was that had an appointment the following day to have Dakota euthanized asher cancer had progressed and she was in a lot of pain and not walking unless she had help.

I was at peace with what needed to be done for her and I didn't think it was humane to allow her to continue living the in the condition she was in.

Loosing two fury family members within 24 hours was unfathomable. Thank God for my Dad and all of his help and Dan for comforting me while I was on an emotional roller coaster.

 

 

This picture was was probably taken a couple months ago, but was a great one with both of them.

Celebrating Five Years of Marriage

On October 27th, Dan and I celebrated five years of marriage.

In honor of this, we took a quick getaway to Niagara Falls. We stayed at the Four Points on the Canada side, the hotel did not have enough floors to have a view, but the accommodations were nice and it was connected to one of the casinos.

Unfortunately it was rainy and gloomy the entire time we were there, but the Falls were still absolutely stunning. We were able to go up in the Skylon Tower and do the Journey behind the Falls, where you actually go in a tunnel that brings you to openings that are behind the Falls. It was very neat. We also went to an IMAX movie and to see a 3D/4D movie called Niagara's Fury where you felt like you were on a boat that fell over the falls and you got wet too. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that is going to the Falls. I would also recommend staying on the Canada side, the views of all the Falls are fantastic! 

 

 

They gave us ponchos to wear so that you wouldn't get soaked by the mist and it was raining too.

 

I bought a waterproof jacket that I wore most of the time we were there, I was avoiding wearing the big yellow poncho...

 

The view behind the Falls, the sound was awesome!

 

Just thought this was a cool picture that I was able to get from the railing.

 

We went to an indoor butterfly garden and to see the floral clock.

 

Our last dinner while we were there, the view was amazing, the food was not so much.



Boo at the Zoo

We have been to Boo at the Columbian Park Zoo every year since Bradley was born, but this year was the first year that it didn't drizzle most of the time and the it wasn't freezing cold. The weather was wonderful! It 70 degrees an gorgeous outside!

It was the week before Halloween and Bradley put on his cowboy costume and Jaxson was dressed as a horse as requested by Bradley.

 

 

Once we arrived at Boo at the Zoo, we coincidentally met up with some of our friends. We spent most of the time we were there waiting in line for the "enchanted" train ride, but it was what both of the boys really wanted to do. Then I forgot to take pictures by the time we actually got to ride the train. Then we were left with about 15 minutes for the kids to play games and walk around the rest of the zoo. Next year, I think we may try to skip the train ride.

 

 

We ran into Kendal Rossiter, Addi Brunton, and Klohe Rossiter. (I am sure I spelled some one's name wrong. Sorry.) It was great to get them all to pose for a picture while we waited for the train.

 

Daddy had to work so Papa went with us.

 

Jax playing "fling the bat."

 

We stopped by the petting zoo and Bradley got to try out goat farming.

 

It was such a nice evening!