I have to admit that it has taken longer than usual for me to update Trey's blog after returning from a trip. My main reason is that I am still recovering from the loss of our female puppy, Laci while we were in Minnesota. Yes, we still call them our puppies, and our babies, and my little girl (Laci), and Mike's big boy (Tate). And yes we know they are 11 1/2 (Laci) and 12 1/2 (Tate) and are far from babies.
To give you a bit of history, Mike and I bought Golden Retrievers with the mindset that we would have kids some day and that Goldens would be the "perfect pet"...Laci was all that and more! In fact, I always called her the perfect pet, and Laci licky-wag because she was always so excited to see us, she would wag her tail furiously and lick and lick and lick (if we let her). The kids loved her oh, so much and she loved the kids in return...she was honestly, the "perfect pet" for the boys.
We were all afraid of leaving Tate,the older one with the health problems for such a long time so we made a big fuss over saying good bye to him, told Laci to take care of her big brother and even made them ground beef before we left. Well as God's plan would have it, Laci was the one who didn't make it through the long absence with out us. Our neighbor, Jen was everything we could have asked for in a sitter. The vet had told us over the phone that Laci's spleen had ruptured and that she more than likely only had 48 hours to live. IF it would have been ANY other day...like a day we were in the cities or the day after my Grandma's party, Mike and I keep saying that we would have flown home but being the day before my Grandma's big 90th birthday party (being 90, would she be around to see 91...how do I make that choice?) and being so far from home, we made the decision to follow the vet's recommendation and let our baby girl follow the "rainbow bridge". Before the vet released Laci from her pain, he allowed us to talk to her over the speaker phone for as long as it took...we all talked to her in our bravest, most "normal" voice and said all the loving things we would say to her on any normal day. The most touching part was that the vet said as we spoke, Laci's eyes stopped darting, her shallow breathing became more normal and her heartbeat increased a bit...if only for that moment she knew that she was not alone and again truly felt the love we had bestowed upon her all her life.
We are having the hardest time with the grief of loosing Laci because we never got to say goodbye. Knowing your pets are old, bracing yourself for the complications that come with old age, being able to hold, kiss and love on them one last time is all part of the process. With our story, none of that was possible. Laci wasn't sick and acted like a puppy until the day we left...we told her to take care of Tate never imaging that it would be the last time we'd see her.
The boys were very sad that day in Minnesota when we made the decision as a family to free Laci from her pain but were in a much deeper state of sadness when we returned home to Arizona without Laci greeting us at the front door. We relived the sorrow not once but twice. The boys are so happy that Tate is still with us and love on him more than ever and because we've had Tate as long as we had Laci, we all feel like a part of her is still with us in him.
Mike and I were so scared that Tate would begin to go "down hill" fast without his "sister" by his side, but maybe due to the fact that he can't really hear or see out of one eye and is pretty old himself, it's not affecting him like it would have had all his senses been in tact...thank God for that.
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