December Sorrow

On December 21, 2009 we tragically lost my husband's brother in a work accident.  Our hearts were filled with sorrow.  One of our greatest comforts were his two huskies we would be taking in.  You could read about it here.  We were so happy to have them with us.  They brought joy to our day with their antics.  The kids chased them around they yard.  They followed my husband everywhere. Sometimes, they would even try to "break out" of our yard to follow him to work.

In the middle of December Petie, the youngest husky, starting behaving strangely.  He would not eat his dog food and starting drinking voraciously.  I thought he was being picky with the dry food because when we gave him canned food or chicken and rice that I cooked for them, he would eat it all.  On Christmas morning, he gave a loud howl and passed out.  We were scared and unsure of what to do since everything was closed.  He was better the rest of the day and stayed inside with us.  The next day he did the same thing first thing in the morning.  His loud howl outside woke me up inside.  It was Sunday, the vet wasn't open and we were expecting a blizzard.  On Monday morning, he played in the snow with his mama, no passing out, no loud, painful howls.  We still wanted him to get checked.  We thought he might have an ear infection, or something minor like that.  My dh took him to the vet and they immediately wanted to keep him.  They said his blood sugar was in the 500's, he was jaundiced and we came to find out he had a cyst of unknown origin in his abdomen.  This led to a couple of roller coaster days where he would be better at one point and much worse just a short time later.  The vet suggested surgery as his only hope for getting better, we agreed.  They were never able to get the blood sugars under control and the jaundice any better.  We knew there was a risk.  They performed the surgery and he pulled through like a champ.  When I spoke to the vet that evening, things sounded promising.  We believed that the worst was behind us.  It was a great shock when I received the call from the vet on Thursday telling us that Petie had passed.  They tried to resuscitate him but could not. 

I was at a loss for words.  My heart was broken.  I did not even want to climb the stairs to break this bad news to my husband.  Petie was the dog he was closest to.  He followed him everywhere and sat by his side. My heart just breaks.  I cannot comprehend this loss at the same time of year.  It has been harder than I could imagine.

Petie had the sweetest disposition.  He loved everyone and wanted everyone to love him.  You can see in the picture below that he would lay down anywhere to take his naps.  He reminded us of  a gentle bear.

 You will be forever in our hearts, Petie.

August 15, 2005-December 30,2010