This post is a departure from my usual fare of kid life and travels. Last August our first baby, our furbaby Leela was diagnosed with cancer. A mass appeared on her right leg in June and grew rapidly.
Treatment was too expensive and our normal vet couldn't do the surgery because of the location, we would have had to go to a specialist. So we decided to make sure she was happy and comfortable and not in pain. That stupid tumor kept growing, her last few weeks I could tell it was hurting her to walk. We increased the pain meds, I had her on a holistic diet, trying to get every last day we could with her. But then the time came, we knew we had to let her go. She stopped eating, could barely walk and she was suffering. We did the kind thing and her euthanized in December. Its not an easy decision to make but we were there with her till the end telling her we loved her and giving her hugs and kisses.
Its been a month since we had to say goodbye. I thought, ok, we'll be fine. We'll just be cat people. I have my girl Padme and my boy Vader. But when you have had a dog companion for over 9 years the house is so quiet when they aren't there anymore. I mean don't get me wrong, the boys are super loud and crazy as ever. But when they are asleep or out and you don't have your dog buddy there it feels so empty. We've been going on weekends to different shelters looking at their dogs. Mike would find one he liked or I would find one I liked but we couldn't agree on the same one. It got to the point I was getting anxiety searching for another dog. I decided enough, we aren't going to look anymore I can't take this stress. Then on Tuesday, I was near the Charlotte shelter after work and decided to just pop in and walk through the dog section. And there she was, happy little face, tail wagging, running up to the door to greet me. This tiny little dog not even phased by all the other dogs barking and making noise. I knew I wanted a smaller dog around 20-30 pounds only because so many places discriminate against larger dogs. There would be times we wanted to take Leela and the people would tell us no she's too big. It didn't matter she was completely housebroken and would never do anything in the house. So I ask to see this little tiny happy dog. They bring her into the meet and greet room and she runs right up to me giving me kisses. She melted my heart and I decided to adopt her. I couldn't bring her home till the next day because she had to be spayed. That night and the next morning I felt like I was betraying Leela by getting another dog. How could I do this to her, replace her? But here's the thing, she can never be replaced. She will always be our first baby, we brought her home as a 10 week old puppy and raised her and trained her. We gave her a home and a family. She will never be forgotten and was an important part of our lives all those years. By getting another dog, another pet, is a testament to her memory and how incredibly awesome she was to us.
So me and the boys picked up our new doggy yesterday. Even though she just had surgery she saw the loud, rambunctious boys and wagged her tail and tried to lick them. They were both so excited. As we got in the car Roman said, Mommy, Leela will like the doggy. Yes, Roman, Leela would have loved her.
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| Meet Cocoa |
