Hello Blog - It's been awhile....
Rough start to this week! So I thought I'd take the opportunity to write... Oh wait, I do that every day! Just not much here anymore.
Bear, our family dog of 13 years, died Sunday - very unexpectedly, I might ad. He fed with me in the a.m., and by mid-afternoon he was gone. I was fortunate I guess - did not have to make the dreaded decision to put him down (been there done that!), and he was literally barking and wagging his tail up until the last few minutes!
While I assumed a heart attack, a vet friend of mine informed me "dogs don't have heart attacks", so perhaps a stroke. But either way, it sure threw a kink in my day! Nothing like spending the rest of the day in the tub crying and drinking wine.
I know..I know...drinking is a bad thing when you are down. But sometimes, a good pitty party is needed. And I made sure I had a good one!
Bear had quite a history with us. When I first picked him up, as a tiny puppy, I brought him home and stuck him in the laundry room with our basset hound. When my son came home, I sent him in to let the basset out, thinking he would find Bear, and be surprised! He came back out, with the basset, and no Bear.
I went in, a bit afraid of what I was going to find, and after a thorough search, found him hiding under the freezer. Apparently bassets are scary...he's been beating her up ever since.
When he was a little older, he took a liking to sheep - preferably lamb. My son's 4-H lambs didn't fare well during this learning experience. While I insisted that he was going to have to go after this, my son convinced me otherwise....we haven't had a sheep since. Mixed blessing there. My daughter ended up having 4-H pigs, in part because of Bear.
And then there was his learning experience with horses. Bear was a blue healer mix, and wanted to herd something - the basset, the kids, the horses. We got a new mare, and she wasn't having any of it, and kicked him in the head. Knocked him out cold. The vet told me he was going to need jaw surgery or he would never be able to eat again. After taking him home to "think about it over night", I found that his appetite had not disappeared, and he was eating soft dog food just fine. That progressed to hard within a few weeks, and we never went back to that vet!
Bear became quite a barker after that. But he did stay away from the horses.
Then there was the ACL surgery. He took up rabbit hunting, and was very successful! Until he tore his ACL. $800 surgery later, he was confined to the dreaded laundry room again...for a few weeks. Not a fun task for he or I. But that was several years ago.
He's been chasing rabbits ever since...up until Sunday.
I guess I can get a lamb now? Ha! NOT!
Going to miss you Bear!
May take another pity party or two to get over this one.
Throw in the fact that I forgot my purse this morning, I'm out of gas in my car, my daughter went back to college, my mare cut her leg and it's been below zero the last 4 nights....and I feel it coming on.
I truly believe a good pity party is healthy - every now and then.
