Wednesday, December 10, 2014
There is not a lot going on around here this week. We are just trying to get through these next 8 (almost 7) days of school before Christmas break. Since there is not much to write about I thought I would share another one of the ornaments that hold a very special place in my heart. Some will totally get this post and others will think that I am being way too emotional.
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Jeremy and I had been married a little over a year when we decided that we wanted a puppy. I grew up with several beagles and they were my favorite dog, so we looked in the area for a place that sold beagle puppies. We found a family that bred beagles in Murfreesboro, TN. We drove the 45 minutes to go check out the puppies. We knew we wanted a female and this place only had two females but it actually made it easier to pick a puppy. We walked back to the fenced in area where the puppies were being kept. All of the puppies were yapping and jumping by the fence to get our attention. That is when I noticed that not all of the puppies had come to greet us. There was this butterball of a puppy that was in the back and was taking advantage of the fact that none of the other puppies were at the food dish. We were told that the puppy in the back was one of the females and I knew that I would get along great with this puppy. We paid for her and on the way back home we decided (I decided) that we would name her Maggie.
Five months or so had passed and we were making plans to go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. Two days before we were to leave Maggie swallowed a tiny wall nail that that fallen on the floor. We rushed her to our local vet and it was decided that because she was so small the nail would not pass without damage so it would have to be surgically removed. It was removed and we picked her up from the vet and made our trip to IL. The night before Thanksgiving we all decided to go see Monsters Inc. at the theater. We had noticed that Maggie kept licking her stitches (they did not give us a cone!) and so we tried to wrap her up in an old t-shirt to keep her form bothering the stitches, We got home that Wednesday evening and Maggie had come out of her t-shirt and ripped her stitches out and some of her intestines were actually hanging out. We wrapped her up in a towel and Jeremy held her against his stomach while we frantically tried to find an emergency vet to take her to. The only place that was open was a place near Chicago! My sister and her husband make the trip with us to Chicago to take her to the vet. A really long story short, the vet was able to help her. There was a concern for infection since her guts had been hanging out, but they kept her for a few days and after a couple of thousands dollars our baby was sent home, this time with a cone. We all returned home and we were so thankful that Maggie was going to be okay. A few days after we got home I was petting her one day and I felt a huge lump on her back towards her tail. Of course I was worried and I was for sure that after all the trauma the poor dog probably had a tumor or something! I took her back to the vet and they were pretty stumped too because they said it looked like a burn. We went over the paperwork from the emergency vet and discovered that she had been placed under a heat lamp when trying to help her recover. The heat from the lamp had actually burned her back. We had to keep cream on it for weeks and just like a burn it scabbed up and then fell off. It was pretty nasty and she lost her hair in the spot where the burn had happened. We had to put sun screen on that spot if she was going to be outside in the sun for more than a few minutes and she had to wear a sweater in the Winter. It was definitely a conversation starter because everyone that saw her had to know what had happened to her back. We loved that dog bald spot and all!
A few years after we got Maggie we moved to SC. It was while we were in SC that I was diagnosed with cancer. Maggie was such a comfort to me. She somehow knew the days that I had doctor's appointment and treatments. She knew when we got bad news. She would not leave my side after those appointments. There were very few things that brought me joy during those dark days, Maggie was one of those things. She was my baby even before I knew I couldn't have babies, but after the final diagnosis she was seen as my only baby. We moved back to TN and there were still dark days to walk through and Maggie helped me walk through those days. Of course we all know that we eventually added three babies to our family and Maggie loved playing with Samuel, Emma, and Chloe! Samuel and Maggie would fall asleep together all the time and it was just the sweetest!
In 2009, Maggie started to show her age. She had slowed down and started having more trips to the vet for different issues. In December of 2009 she really started having some problems and there would be blood when she went to the bathroom. December 22, 2009 Maggie laid in our laundry room floor and was pretty lifeless. I laid on that floor that night thanking her for making my life better. I said my good-byes knowing that she would probably be gone by morning. I woke up with some new hope to find her up and eating a little bit of food. Jeremy was going to be taking her to the vet that afternoon hoping we could get her some help. He left with Maggie that December 23rd and I begged him to please bring her back, but she would not be coming back. The vet said she had 1 of 3 illnesses and only one was treatable without a guarantee that she would live. She was going to need a blood transfusion to even begin the tests. We made the hardest decision to let her go. It was so difficult that close to Christmas and most people could not understand the heartbreak of losing our Maggie girl. I have to be honest, 5 years out I still miss Maggie. I am crying even as I write this post because that is how much I loved her and how much I still miss her. So every year I hang her ornament on the tree I am thankful that God uses His creation to bring us so much joy and comfort.
.JPG)
.JPG)
Jeremy and I had been married a little over a year when we decided that we wanted a puppy. I grew up with several beagles and they were my favorite dog, so we looked in the area for a place that sold beagle puppies. We found a family that bred beagles in Murfreesboro, TN. We drove the 45 minutes to go check out the puppies. We knew we wanted a female and this place only had two females but it actually made it easier to pick a puppy. We walked back to the fenced in area where the puppies were being kept. All of the puppies were yapping and jumping by the fence to get our attention. That is when I noticed that not all of the puppies had come to greet us. There was this butterball of a puppy that was in the back and was taking advantage of the fact that none of the other puppies were at the food dish. We were told that the puppy in the back was one of the females and I knew that I would get along great with this puppy. We paid for her and on the way back home we decided (I decided) that we would name her Maggie.
Five months or so had passed and we were making plans to go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. Two days before we were to leave Maggie swallowed a tiny wall nail that that fallen on the floor. We rushed her to our local vet and it was decided that because she was so small the nail would not pass without damage so it would have to be surgically removed. It was removed and we picked her up from the vet and made our trip to IL. The night before Thanksgiving we all decided to go see Monsters Inc. at the theater. We had noticed that Maggie kept licking her stitches (they did not give us a cone!) and so we tried to wrap her up in an old t-shirt to keep her form bothering the stitches, We got home that Wednesday evening and Maggie had come out of her t-shirt and ripped her stitches out and some of her intestines were actually hanging out. We wrapped her up in a towel and Jeremy held her against his stomach while we frantically tried to find an emergency vet to take her to. The only place that was open was a place near Chicago! My sister and her husband make the trip with us to Chicago to take her to the vet. A really long story short, the vet was able to help her. There was a concern for infection since her guts had been hanging out, but they kept her for a few days and after a couple of thousands dollars our baby was sent home, this time with a cone. We all returned home and we were so thankful that Maggie was going to be okay. A few days after we got home I was petting her one day and I felt a huge lump on her back towards her tail. Of course I was worried and I was for sure that after all the trauma the poor dog probably had a tumor or something! I took her back to the vet and they were pretty stumped too because they said it looked like a burn. We went over the paperwork from the emergency vet and discovered that she had been placed under a heat lamp when trying to help her recover. The heat from the lamp had actually burned her back. We had to keep cream on it for weeks and just like a burn it scabbed up and then fell off. It was pretty nasty and she lost her hair in the spot where the burn had happened. We had to put sun screen on that spot if she was going to be outside in the sun for more than a few minutes and she had to wear a sweater in the Winter. It was definitely a conversation starter because everyone that saw her had to know what had happened to her back. We loved that dog bald spot and all!
A few years after we got Maggie we moved to SC. It was while we were in SC that I was diagnosed with cancer. Maggie was such a comfort to me. She somehow knew the days that I had doctor's appointment and treatments. She knew when we got bad news. She would not leave my side after those appointments. There were very few things that brought me joy during those dark days, Maggie was one of those things. She was my baby even before I knew I couldn't have babies, but after the final diagnosis she was seen as my only baby. We moved back to TN and there were still dark days to walk through and Maggie helped me walk through those days. Of course we all know that we eventually added three babies to our family and Maggie loved playing with Samuel, Emma, and Chloe! Samuel and Maggie would fall asleep together all the time and it was just the sweetest!
In 2009, Maggie started to show her age. She had slowed down and started having more trips to the vet for different issues. In December of 2009 she really started having some problems and there would be blood when she went to the bathroom. December 22, 2009 Maggie laid in our laundry room floor and was pretty lifeless. I laid on that floor that night thanking her for making my life better. I said my good-byes knowing that she would probably be gone by morning. I woke up with some new hope to find her up and eating a little bit of food. Jeremy was going to be taking her to the vet that afternoon hoping we could get her some help. He left with Maggie that December 23rd and I begged him to please bring her back, but she would not be coming back. The vet said she had 1 of 3 illnesses and only one was treatable without a guarantee that she would live. She was going to need a blood transfusion to even begin the tests. We made the hardest decision to let her go. It was so difficult that close to Christmas and most people could not understand the heartbreak of losing our Maggie girl. I have to be honest, 5 years out I still miss Maggie. I am crying even as I write this post because that is how much I loved her and how much I still miss her. So every year I hang her ornament on the tree I am thankful that God uses His creation to bring us so much joy and comfort.
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