It's been a year

One year ago today I became an angel. Mom says it ranks as one of the worst days of her life. But she knew that letting me become an angel was the best gift she could give me. She says it was the least she could do for me considering all the love & happiness I had given to her. We both wish that our time together could have been longer, but we are both happy for the time we had together.

Gotcha Day

Yesterday was my "Gotcha Day". Never in a million years would my mom have ever thought she would be celebrating my 9th without me. Mom kept herself pretty busy yesterday so she wouldn't be thinking about it. She did give the other pups one of my favorite treats last night in honor of me. I loved a Kong filled with peanut butter & treats. That's what everyone celebrated my day with.

The Gift

I'm borrowing this from Sunny Bunny's diary, hope she doesn't mind.

The Gift
I will lend to you for awhile a puppy, God said,
For you to love her while she lives
and to mourn for her when she is gone.
Maybe for nine or eleven years, or maybe for two or three
But will you, till I call her back take care of her for me?
She'll bring her charms to gladden you and (should her stay be brief)
you'll always have her memories as solace for your grief.
I cannot promise that she will stay, since all from earth return,
But there are lessons taught below I want this pup to learn.
I've looked the whole world over in search of teachers true
And from the folk that crowd life's land I have chosen you.
Now will you give her all your love
Nor think the labour vain
Nor hate me when I come to take my pup back again.
I fancied that I heard them say
For all the joys this pup will bring, the risk of grief you'll run.
Will you shelter her with tenderness
Will you love her while you may
And for the happiness you'll know forever grateful stay.
But should I call her back much sooner than you've planned
Please brave the bitter grief that comes and try to understand.
If, by your love, you've managed my wishes to achieve,
In memory of her that you've loved,
Cherish every moment with your faithful bundle,
and know she loved you too.

Author Unknown

Permanent Home

My special urn that mom ordered for me arrived yesterday. Now I'm in my permanent home. It had room in it for my ashes, collar & a few other tokens. Mom is printing a special photo at work today to put in the little photo frame on it.

Now, no matter where mom lives, I'm going to live there too! When mom says she has a pet for life, she means it!

Home

I'm home again. Mom picked my ashes up this evening. She says it's sad, but she is also happy that I am back home with her where I belong. I could have been home yesterday, but the ladies at the vet's office just couldn't bring themselves to call mom. They were too sad.

Mom has a special box coming for my ashes, she spent a lot of time looking for just the right one. This one has a spot for a photo of me, has a beautiful little saying engraved on it. Mom is hoping that it will be big enough to put my collar in along with my ashes.

Mom told the ladies at the vet's office to be on the lookout for box addressed to Dr Rick tomorrow. She said they needed to make sure he shared. Mom sent a gift to the vet's office as a little thank you for the great work they do and for the excellent care they took of me while I was sick.

My brother Patton has been very sad since I went to the bridge. When mom gets home, he is so happy! Then he notices that I'm not with her. It's like someone turned off a light switch :-( Mom is thinking that she may need to get another young dog for him to play with. My other siblings are such old fuddy duddys and won't play with him.

Sad Day

I was joined at the Bridge today by a very dear friend of mine, Louis James

He fought a courageous battle against prostate cancer. If you have the chance, please stop by his page and let his family know how much he was loved. My mom knows that those kind words from fellow dog lovers can mean the world to our humans. ((hugs))

A Warm Thank You

My mom & I want to send out a very warm THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me during a very difficult time. My page is beautiful with all the rosettes, stars & special gifts that everyone has shared with me. Your kind words can make mom's eyes leak, but that's ok because she knows that I was loved by many people.

We'd love to send personal Thank Yous to everyone, but mom doesn't think she's up to it or if she could even keep up with them. We do have a couple special friends that we'd like to say thanks to: Abby, Chipper, Peanut & Louis James ((hugs))

Work has been hard on mom today. Since I had been sick, I had been keeping mom company at work a lot. People keep stopping by her office to ask how I'm doing and she has to tell each one that she lost me. It's really hard on her.

She bought some flowers to plant in honor of me yesterday. She knows that I would find that very funny. I loved flowers. I especially loved biting the tops/blooms off the flowers. And if I did do that, I would yank them out of the ground and shake all the dirt off the roots!

Annie is at the Rainbow Bridge

Annie went to the Rainbow Bridge this morning. I just couldn't let her suffer.

In the past 12 hours, her health took a turn for the worse. And things were continuing to go down hill. They determined that she had a brain lesion, most likely cancer. This morning she was experiencing major neurological problems. The kindest thing I could do was to help her stop suffering, even though it broke my heart.

Not so good

sorry everyone mom's had a lot of things going on today and hasn't posted much here or really anywhere for that matter. Mom checked on me this morning (Friday) and I was spacey, but got up to greet mom finally. I even wagged my tail, but my energy was zapped quickly.

When mom went to check on me around 3pm, Dr Rick told her to take me home for the night. Maybe she would get lucky and I would eat for her. I didn't eat and I seem to be going downhill fast.

We are supposed to go back in a few hours (8:30am) to have another CBC ran. Mom is hoping that I make it through the night. She keeps checking me because I'm so quiet. If I make it through the night and if Dr Rick thinks I'm strong enough for the CBC... well mom has decided that it HAS to show some signs of improvement/hope, otherwise she won't let me suffer and she will help me to the bridge.

We will let you know what happens.

At the vet's office

Annie's mom here... I just left Annie at the vet. It appears that she had some seizure activity (mild) this weekend. I took her to the vet on Monday and she was doing fair, but wasn't really interested in food. They ran blood work and it came back showing her red blood cell count was low. We've been trying everything to get her to eat, but she just wouldn't do it. She would drink, but not eat more than a bite of anything. And without food, that blood cell count wouldn't go up.

Annie perked up a little yesterday evening & I thought we were getting out of the woods. But late last night she crashed again.

I took her back to the vet today and now all her levels are low. If her red blood cell count gets any lower, she will need a transfusion. They've done xrays and will do an ultrasound later today to see if they can find anything. The xrays show some fluid in her lungs, probably due to the break down of the red blood cells. There is an area that looks like it could be a mass in her abdomen, but it isn't clear what it is. She has one kidney that is enlarged and the other isn't where it should be. We are hoping that the ultrasound might give us a clearer idea of what is going on. The only other options is surgery, which is too risky at this point since her blood isn't clotting. Or try an MRI, which is simply too expensive for me right now, and the vet doesn't feel that Annie is stable enough to transport to the University at this time.

So we are really needing some of that powerful PoP right now. The vet will give me an update later tonight around, 9 or 10pm when he goes into the office to check on her.