She's Gone

It was 6 years ago that Diana asked us for a dog. We already had Buddy, our black lab, but she found a westie who needed a home. Pleeeaaassse could she have her, she'd be leaving for California in a few months and would take the dog with her, she'd only be with us a short time.

Well, the move to California fell through and Sugar has been a part of our lives ever since. Her and Buddy got along well and having one more dog didn't make that much difference.

Sugar loved the sunshine! She'd sit outside (preferring her own lawn chair, thank you) and soak up the sun. She'd find the only spot in the car, on a log at the beach, didn't matter. If there was sun, she wanted to be in it!

 

 

 

 

She loved to sit on the back of furniture. She was more like a cat than a dog, really. Diana used to always say that and it was true.

 

 

 

But more than the sun and furniture, she loved people the most. She was such a people 'person' always wanting to be touched. She would even jump up on the couch and reach out to just put one paw on your leg. As long as she was touching you, she was okay. But so often, she just HAD to be touching someone.

 

 

 

 

In October 2014 she had her first seizure. Diana had come home late and didn't want to wake us so left her in our room to sleep for the night. Then out of the blue, at 2:30 in the morning she had a full on, gran mal seizure. Scared me so much! She had another one later that morning so we took her to the vet and they believed it was blood clots in her brain that were causing them and told us that she would probably continue to have them. Considering she was already 12 years old, we did some blood work, a urinalysis but opted not to do surgery.

 

She had a few more before Christmas, then went almost a month without one seizure! Just last week I remember thinking that it had been a whole month and I was glad and a little surprised. But then, without any warning she had another one. And another. And another. Then in 3 days time, she had 6 seizures and never really recovered.

 

Diana made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep but knew she couldn't take her to the vet herself. She spent the day on the couch with her, loving on her and saying her goodbyes. Beth came up and was petting her for a few seconds, but then burst into tears. Chuck and I drove her to the vet today and they were so kind, to her and to us. We went into a private room where we got to say our final goodbyes, I cried and kept petting her. She could barely lift her head. The doctor came in and gently took her from me, we paid the bill, walked out to the car and I burst into tears. She's really gone.

 

'Sugar Babe' as we used to call her, will no longer pop her head up as we walk in the door. No more jumping off the couch to come greet us. No more begging for bananas. No more scrambling to get that one little piece of lettuce. That dog loved lettuce! 

 

Our hearts ache. We'll miss you Shug. You were a good girl.