daily dose of dogs (aka cats with your coffee)

Thanksgiving

As I said in my post yesterday, things here haven’t been great recently.  But there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for.

If you’re reading here, you know of my love for Andrea (of Celestial Kitties).  She’s been gone over 9 months now.  Literally a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think of her.  But right now, in November, it’s especially hard.  Andrea always did a Holiday Auction for Winnie’s Wish.  She put SO much work into these auctions – from actually sewing and crocheting many of the items in the auction, to all of the organizing and mailing out and keeping track of the money.  Every auction provided a HUGE contribution to Winnie’s Wish. It was money to “live on” for weeks!  Andrea was the biggest cheerleader Winnie’s Wish has ever had.  She was passionate about my work throughout all these years – rescuing, adopting out, and now providing permanent homes here for the Wishers.  It has been difficult to lose her support.  But it’s been even more difficult to lose her friendship.

Andrea’s husband Greg certainly supported Andrea as she supported me and Winnie’s Wish.  At Andrea’s memorial service earlier this year, gifts were collected for Winnie’s Wish.  In typical “Greg” fashion, he “rounded up” and sent that gift to me to use for the Wisher sanctuary.  I guess Andrea found a way to give even after she was gone.

So Andrea, and Greg – THANK YOU.

I will forever miss Andrea.  But what I can be thankful for is that she and I found each other years ago and developed a deep friendship.  I can be thankful for all of the years of her financial support.  I can be thankful for her love of the Wisher kitties here – three of which she adopted to be her own.

I lost my Rolly dog.  (I blogged about this yesterday.)    I’ve lost some special kitties this year, too.  It would be easy to focus on the loss.  But what each of my furry friends has given me makes the loss easier to bear.  I can truly say that the pain of losing these wonderful little personalities does not outweigh the joy and pleasure they have brought into my life.  I am still surrounded by so many amazing creatures.  They bring such meaning to my life.  For that, I am thankful.

I hope if you are going through your own hardship or loss, you will find a way to see through the tears to the joys that still exist in your life.  That is what I am doing this Thanksgiving Day.

 

Much love.

 

Rolly

 

I have lost my little momma’s boy – Rolly.

Things have been rough recently.   Several weeks ago, my mom fell and ended up in the hospital and then in a rehabilitation center.  A week later, my dad fell, went into the hospital and then into a rehabilitation center.  Then two weeks ago, our house flooded.   A week into that nightmare, Rolly became very sick.  We tried an antibiotic, but he did not get better.  We then did bloodwork and discovered, unfortunately, that he was in full kidney failure.  On the day we did the bloodwork, I could have opted to have him euthanized.  But I just couldn’t do it.  It would have been the right thing to do.  But I simply could not let him go that day.  That was on a Friday, and I knew he would have to get through the weekend.  My vet gave pain meds and I hoped to keep him somewhat comfortable until Tuesday.  My husband had a back procedure on Monday which meant poor Rolly would have to live like this until Tuesday.  I hoped he might die at home.  But I knew that was unlikely.  If I had been a better person, I wouldn’t have kept him alive to suffer three more days.  But it seemed at the time unbearable to say goodbye.  I vowed to lavish him with love and keep him on the pain meds and try to prepare myself to let him go.  He didn’t have a terrible weekend, but by Monday things were really bad.  It was a relief on Tuesday to assist him to the Bridge.  I love him so much; it was the right thing to help him get out of here – it was my duty.

Fourteen years ago, Rolly was a tiny puppy who came into the shelter where my daughters now work.  He was found tied up in a trash bag on a commercial garbage truck.  Someone had put him and his brother into that trash bag, tied it up, and set it out with the garbage to be tossed onto the truck.  This person (monster) had to know they would die a slow agonizing death.  But a worker on the truck saw movement in the trash bag.  My older daughter was doing her internship at the shelter that fall.  She brought the two puppies to our house (she was still living here at that time).  She found a home for the brother and Rolly stayed with us. 

Rolly has been a Momma’s Boy forever.  My husband has a dog (Ressie) who is glued to him constantly.  And I had Rolly.  My husband has reported all these years that Rolly would sit in the window and watch for me any time I left the house.  I have said to my daughters many times that Rolly could never die because he and I needed each other too much.

With my parents in their place in life, and our house gutted, it was terrible timing to lose my little buddy.  I’m hoping for a change of luck.  I’m hoping my parents will maybe recover enough to get back in their home.  And I know eventually we will get our house back.  But my little guy is gone forever now.  I miss him so much.

 

Rolly – Farewell.