My Fur Children

Ahh my sweet Bailey...this is going to be a hard blog to write but I wanted to pay a little tribute to her.

I had been married about a year and we decided we weren't quite ready for kids so we did what every other young couple does and got a dog. It was the summer of 1995 and we were living in Lee's Summit at the time and went to the local shelter and found a kennel that had two puppies in it. The male was very aggressive and barking while the female was shy and timid in the back of the kennel. I asked to get the female out and fell in love with her. They believed she was about 2 months old. We took her home and she slept on my lap for hours. She had been picked up off the street, along with her brother. We named her Kasey and she looked just like a mini lab at first. We had her about a month and decided to get her a friend because two dogs are better than one right?? We looked again at the local shelter but didn't find anything so we went over to Animal Haven in Shawnee. As I was walking around, I came up to the most adorable 2 month old puppy who the second she saw us, flipped over on her back as if to say PET MEEEEEEEEEE. She was the sweetest little puppy. I asked what the story was with her and she had just that morning been brought in by a family who was moving and couldn't keep her anymore. She instantly became the dog for us! I remember bringing her home and putting her in the yard with Kasey and poor Kasey just took off running from her!!

Fast forward a year to April of 1996 when my son Kyler was born. Both Kasey and Bailey licked him like crazy when we brought him home. They were such good 'baby monitors' as well, one little sound from him and they would make sure I knew about it! Never once was I ever concerned with having a baby and two dogs.

Press FF again to another 3 years to June of 1999 when my daughter Miranda was born. The dogs AND Kyler all became my 'baby monitors' for her. Again, no worries about them. Now big brother picking on her was another worry of mine but that didn't happen for a few more years. He actually kinda liked her at this age LOL

I got divorced in the fall of 2000 and moved out of the dream house I had built with my ex-husband *sigh* but then again, it was just a house right? Better to move on and be happy then to stay and be miserable....anyways, that's another blog for another time. The place I moved into wasn't too pet friendly. I could have kept them but would've had to pay so much to have them there and it didn't have a yard or anything so my ex-mother in law offered to doggy sit for a whole year for me!! God love her! Kasey and Bailey went to live with her and accepted the change well I think. They had a yard and someone to love them, what more could a dog ask for!?!

Finally a year later I moved into a place I could have the pooches back at. It was great having my furry kids back!! All was going well till spring of 2006 when Bailey started to get really sick and weak. She could barely walk and get around, I was freaking out that this was the end for her because in reality, she was 11 yrs old and that's a pretty good lifetime for a doggie. I was going out of town for Memorial Day and so I knew I had to get her into the vet asap. I took her in and had to make a decision to put her down or go for it and spend the money to figure out what is wrong. I couldn't give up that easy so I gave them the go ahead. They ran a ton of tests and blood work....long story short...she was diagnosed with Diabetes. Of course that meant I had to make the decision to put forth the time and effort to get her healthy again. She's my baby so I accepted. From that point on, I had to give her two shots of insulin a day. That's a pretty big commitment of time and money to devote to her but again, she's my baby so I did it. Within a short time she bounced back to the Bailey I knew. Thank god!

Having Diabetes really aged my poor girl. Over the past two years, she slowed down little by little, I could tell she was loosing her hearing and was getting cataracts with the disease. A few weeks ago she was really acting weird over a period of days. She was wandering around, panting, couldn't get comfortable, throwing up bile, and would just look lost so to say. I called the vet and he suggested bringing her in so Miranda and I took her in that day. The vet said she wasn't looking too good and that the disease had wore her out pretty good. He told me I was probably going to have to make a decision I didn't want to make or that we could run a bunch of tests to see what's wrong but I could see it in his face what the right decision was to make. I asked how soon I needed to make a decision and he said that was really up to me and that he could give her pain meds to help her out. I knew I couldnt take her home and then take her back again, that would pain me too much. I asked if I could please leave her for a few minutes to go get Kyler so that he could say his goodbyes as well. When we got back, the three of us went in as a family to talk to her and tell her how much we loved her. We were there through the very end as well. It was SO awful leaving her behind but I knew it was the thing to do. She had 13 years of love with us and actually the last 2 were bonus years in my eyes.

Poor Kasey was lost for a few days, she's never been alone like that. She's always been my dog, always with me where ever I was in the house she was there too. Now it's even more apparent how close she is to me. The first few days were rough, she wasn't eating and she was getting sick alot but she's better now, as we all are.

We miss our Bailey so much but we realize she's no longer in pain and won't get scared when it thunders and rains anymore.

Bailey - Sept 2007

Kasey - Sept 2007

My Fur Babies - Dec 2007