Dear
Fredericka,
I am sending
you the last picture I got of our beloved Shelby. At a ripe old
age of 11 years almost 12 she was put to sleep on Feb. 13th
of 2009. The good girl that she was never complained about pain
or let us know how bad she really was. In the end bone cancer
made her lose control of her hind quarters and lost urinary
control as well. As grand a lady, and profound ambassador for that
this gentle giant was, it was not dignified to allow her to suffer
any longer. The mind may have been willing, but the body was not.
The picture I
am sending of her is the day before she passed away. It just
happened to be a good week for her being not too hot and not too
cold. You could always find her lounging in her favorite place in
the sun in the front window. Right were all the action was.
Where she could watch her kids and alert us of the mailman who had
to be barked at on a daily basis.
But even if
that was sad in the end it’s all alright. When we came home from
the vet. I was just depressed and inconsolable. I decided to
light a brand new candle for my Shelby. It happened to be her
favorite sent, anything vegetative. When we first brought Shelby
home from your farm we stopped to let her have a potty break. So
what do good puppy owners do? You put your puppy in the grass to
let them do their business. Well little Shelby felt the grass
under her paws and she rammed her little puppy nose into the grass
and inhaled. Everytime in the spring that was what she did.
Shoved her nose into the grass and inhaled.
So I lit that
candle <Grass> from Yankee Candle and I lit another white candle
on the other side of the house. It was later in the afternoon and
I did not want to leave the vet sent on my clothes for an overly
long time while being upset. I didn’t want to make and vet
association with anything negative for my other dog. After about
20 minutes I decided to go upstairs and take a shower. The kids
decided to go out before I went up and I was alone in the house
with the Hubbie and Gretchen <other dog>. After the shower and a
good cry I felt a bit better and decided to go back downstairs.
The kids were still not home yet and both the hubbie and dog dog
stayed upstairs while I showered.
Now this has
NEVER happened before even with the windows opened in gale force
winds. There was no heat on and the windows and all doors were
closed. There is no true reason for this to happen, but both
candles were out. There was no little puffs of smoke. No little
tell tale scents of blown out candles. They just simply went
out. Never ever ever has that happened before. I own more
candles than that store has flavors and they have not once done
that.
That was a
great feeling. It let’s me know that our girl is still there
watching over us. Hey no one was in the room. The candles have
to be out ;-)
I wanted to
thank you for allowing us to take home that special puppy so many
years ago. Once the healing is well under way I would like to get
another one from you again.
Sincerely,
Bernie,
Carrie, Morgan and Mitch