Her pain has ended, and ours has just begun...

I have been extra quiet this past week and I apologize. For those that know me well... being quiet is not something I do often. I have started at least 3 different posts this week, because I really do have a lot to tell you... but given everything that has been going on, well I have not been able to find the words to say anything. I am really hoping that the dark cloud that has been hanging over us is about to move on out..

We did receive the results from Pathology, but I am saving that for another post. More than anything I need to get some more information from the Doctor before I start writing about it. I would have received that information today, but I had to cancel our appointment due to a change of events. We also tried to celebrate Ademans 3rd birthday yesterday, but the poor boy was robbed of a fun filled day (if you ask me). Just another post I have yet to finish...

You may or may not know that we are really big advocates for animal rescue. We believe every animal deserves a second chance at life. We have had both healthy and not so healthy animals come to live out their remaining years with us. One such dog is Sammie... Or as we like to call her...Sammie The One Eyed Wonder Dog...

Sammie came to us from a Foster Mom on behalf of a Brittany Spaniel Rescue Organization... She clearly was not a Brittany Spaniel and they needed to find her a home, STAT. We were just finishing the grieving process for the loss of our German Shepherd when we found out about Sammie. Sammies Foster Mom was also the Foster Mom for Buddy, our Brittany Spaniel. Buddy was left in an apartment with a litter of puppies and a Female. No food, No water, just an empty apartment. From what we were told they had been in there at least a week. By the time they were rescued there were already some casualties. We were lucky enough to end up with our "Buddy". So when it was time to find Buddy a companion we turned to his Foster Mom. She told us about Sammie...

I was filled with doubt. I really had never thought about the idea of bringing in a dog with physical needs. In reality she had no Physical Needs, except for the fact that she only had 1 eye. You see Sammie had been physically abused by her previous owner. She was punched in the face by a human (a sick, scum of the earth human) hard enough that she lost her eye. The Foster Mom asked is she could bring her out to the property so we could at least meet her, and we said yes. Once she was here it only took a nano second for us to say, Yes. In fact she never left the property again, this was her new home. Sammie was amazing, for only having one eye she could fetch and hunt better than any of our two eyed dog

We were lucky enough to have 4 healthy good years with her.

This last February our Sammie suffered from two Grand Mal Seizures. We (and the Vet) can only assume that those seizures were caused either by a tumor or from scar tissue from her head/brain injury (the same injury that caused her to loose her eye). We placed her on phenobarbital and played around with the dosage until we got it just right. This medication allowed her to have two more months with us. Unfortunately over the past week, we really began to witness a decline in her health. We knew that the time was coming, but neither of us was ready to let go. Yesterday we realized that putting it off much longer would mean that she would probably start to suffer. That is the last thing I wanted for my beautiful Sammie girl. At some point during the night hubby and I decided that today would be the day, that we would help her cross over the Rainbow Bridge.

Her pain has ended, and ours has begun. We know we made the right decision, but that does not take away the hurt, the sadness, or the emptiness. So for now hubby and I will both cry and laugh as we look back on her life with us.