[Pipers]

Originally Posted by lisaly

I've been thinking a lot about what you wrote in your post lately. My mother was a huge animal lover, so I was raised with dogs since I was born. We just lost our little girl, Ashley and with the exception of a couple of months after losing our first yorkie and getting Ashley, this is the first time in thirty years that we don't have a dog in our lives. I knew Ashley wasn't going to live forever, but I couldn't do anything to prepare myself for losing her, and frankly I wouldn't have wanted to have. We knew and still feel the pain of losing her sisters and knew how difficult it would be when she was gone, but my husband and I loved her with such completely open hearts and that love made our lives so much better. It is how she and her sisters loved us, and our dogs teach us so much about love and giving of oneself completely. Coming home each day to a house without a dog is such an empty feeling. One of the many reasons why I love Yorkie Talk is that people here understand how precious our animals are. Ashley needed a lot of care the last year of her life. She had Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, which is like a doggy Alzheimer's. Before this, life revolved around her so it wasn't much different, but it gave us more of a reason to worry about protecting our little girl. My husband stayed home with her every day, and most days he sat in a chair by our bed until I came home so that she could feel safe with him there beside her. We needed to watch her every second to make sure she didn't fall off of the bed. There were so many nights we were up with her for most of the night before we realized that there was medication that could help her anxiety. Still, I was up by 4:00 every morning, so that I could properly take care of Ashley before I went to work. My husband had a bad kidney infection and it took three days before he would go to the hospital because he wouldn't leave Ashley. We didn't know she had CCD, and although she was pretty healthy otherwise, we were afraid she wouldn't survive without us. Few people could understand why we turned our lives upside down for our little girl, and they thought it might be a relief for us when she passed away. I can tell you that we would have done anything to keep her alive, as long as it was right for her. She still was a happy little girl and we got her anxiety under control. Unless there were unusual circumstances like when my husband was hospitalized, she was alone at most a few hours a month. Every second we spent with her was worth it, because she was and is still our heart. It is very painful when we lose them, but the love we receive from our dogs and the happiness that they bring to our lives, makes everything worth it. I feel sorry for people who don't understand this kind of love; they should get a dog and he/she will teach them about love.

Thank you for sharing this...these creatures are angels in disguise.
Don't you wish all people could understand how an animal can touch our hearts...