Today we said good-bye to our "firstborn". Abigail Grace Whyte came into our lives the week before Thanksgiving, 4 1/2 years ago. Thanks to an elderly man on Justin's beat at the time, Tom, we were led to some women that helped rescue dogs from the shelter. A week later, Abby had her first seizure. Way to break us in, huh? Thankfully, we only had to deal with about 3 more seizures after that. As I mentioned in a previous post, we had x-rays done on Abby about 3 weeks ago. From the x-ray it appeared that she had a herniated disc. In reality, she had a tumor that was actually pressing against her spine. This caused her pain and made using her back legs very difficult. On Tuesday of this week, we finally made the decision to put her to sleep on Friday. However, Wednesday, Abby was having even more difficulties walking, so we had to go ahead and put her to sleep this afternoon. Justin could not watch the procedure, but I couldn't let her go through it alone. It was hard to do that, but I know that she's no longer in pain. Probably the hardest thing right now is correcting Emily. She knew that Abby was going to be put to sleep, so she thinks Abby is there taking a nap(Abby spent the night over at the vet hospital a few weeks ago). So, telling her that we won't have Abby again(especially in front of Justin, since he broke down saying good-bye to her)is extremely hard to do. Thankfully, I had my niece come over and take a picture of all of us before we had to say good-bye to her. Maybe that's morbid, but we didn't have any of ALL of us, so I wasn't going to let her leave us without getting one. We loved our stubborn little beagle, who greeted us at the door everytime we came home(Justin use to mention that being his favorite part of coming home).
The man I mentioned above, Tom, was someone that Justin use to talk to every morning at Quik Trip. He and his beagle, Charly, would go in, see Justin and the area newspaper delivery lady, Jan, and chat it up. Tom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was in search for a nursing home and a home for Charly. Justin was going to see him on Saturday, but wasn't able to, to tell him that we would be more than willing to take care of Charly for him. Tuesday, Justin found out that Tom passed away on Easter. It is unfortunate for all of this to have happened this week, but we know that it has worked out for the best. Tom's daughter will be passing the "leash" to us tomorrow and letting us adopt Charly. Charly is a female and we think she is a little older than Abby. We aren't for sure yet. We know she is socialized, since she went everywhere with Tom, but we don't know if she can handle Aiden yet. :) Hopefully the transition will be smooth and the kids will love her...and maybe not call her Abby...here's wishful thinking! Emily knows all about Charly and is very excited for her "new" dog. I will post pics of our new family member soon!
Abby and her daddy sharing a moment. She was having a hard time walking in the yard today, but she stood there and just stared at him intently for a few minutes while he talked to her.
Today we said good-bye to our "firstborn". Abigail Grace Whyte came into our lives the week before Thanksgiving, 4 1/2 years ago. Thanks to an elderly man on Justin's beat at the time, Tom, we were led to some women that helped rescue dogs from the shelter. A week later, Abby had her first seizure. Way to break us in, huh? Thankfully, we only had to deal with about 3 more seizures after that. As I mentioned in a previous post, we had x-rays done on Abby about 3 weeks ago. From the x-ray it appeared that she had a herniated disc. In reality, she had a tumor that was actually pressing against her spine. This caused her pain and made using her back legs very difficult. On Tuesday of this week, we finally made the decision to put her to sleep on Friday. However, Wednesday, Abby was having even more difficulties walking, so we had to go ahead and put her to sleep this afternoon. Justin could not watch the procedure, but I couldn't let her go through it alone. It was hard to do that, but I know that she's no longer in pain. Probably the hardest thing right now is correcting Emily. She knew that Abby was going to be put to sleep, so she thinks Abby is there taking a nap(Abby spent the night over at the vet hospital a few weeks ago). So, telling her that we won't have Abby again(especially in front of Justin, since he broke down saying good-bye to her)is extremely hard to do. Thankfully, I had my niece come over and take a picture of all of us before we had to say good-bye to her. Maybe that's morbid, but we didn't have any of ALL of us, so I wasn't going to let her leave us without getting one. We loved our stubborn little beagle, who greeted us at the door everytime we came home(Justin use to mention that being his favorite part of coming home).
The man I mentioned above, Tom, was someone that Justin use to talk to every morning at Quik Trip. He and his beagle, Charly, would go in, see Justin and the area newspaper delivery lady, Jan, and chat it up. Tom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was in search for a nursing home and a home for Charly. Justin was going to see him on Saturday, but wasn't able to, to tell him that we would be more than willing to take care of Charly for him. Tuesday, Justin found out that Tom passed away on Easter. It is unfortunate for all of this to have happened this week, but we know that it has worked out for the best. Tom's daughter will be passing the "leash" to us tomorrow and letting us adopt Charly. Charly is a female and we think she is a little older than Abby. We aren't for sure yet. We know she is socialized, since she went everywhere with Tom, but we don't know if she can handle Aiden yet. :) Hopefully the transition will be smooth and the kids will love her...and maybe not call her Abby...here's wishful thinking! Emily knows all about Charly and is very excited for her "new" dog. I will post pics of our new family member soon!
Abby and her daddy sharing a moment. She was having a hard time walking in the yard today, but she stood there and just stared at him intently for a few minutes while he talked to her.
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