Well I put off blogging for a long time when my papa passed away....I finally got a little caught up and then sweet Hunter decided to cross the Rainbow Bridge and it's just been difficult...My Hunter was 15 years 8 months and 2 days old---what a great, long life he lived. Kerry picked him up for me out of the back of some pickup truck in the parking lot at Target our senior year of high school. We were walking in and this man had all these puppies. Hunter was the one I grabbed and held for a minute then we went on inside. Kerry went home and asked my mom if he could get me a puppy (they both knew I had been wanting a new dog since my previous rescue only lived a year b/c of health issues). She said sure if its a girl and blue eyes Well he came home with Hunter and he had blue eyes for only a little while:) So to say this dog has been with me for most of my entire life is the honest truth. Hunter was with me when I graduated high school, when I got married, when I went to OU and then later graduated from there, when we moved back home, built a new home, when I had my first professional job, when we had Kohen and then later Kresee.....the list could go on and on. He's been there for 15 Christmases and so this is going to not be a very fun holiday season for us:(. The only thing I can think of is that he is with Biskit and Sage running around pain free and he's happy.
We made the hard decision to put him to sleep on Friday. He had been losing weight but I hadn't really realized how much until we weighed him on Thursday night. He was having a harder time getting around. He was still eating and drinking fine but his balance was off and he paced and paced knowing if he slowed down it would be too hard to get going again. You can see on the pics he just dragged his back feet, so much his nails were down to the quick and they wouldn't stop bleeding. I just bought these dog wrappers for his feet to help and they did. They were rubber and helped his traction too. But on Thursday I knew it was pretty much time to say goodbye. Kerry wasn't quite there yet but after spending some time with him Friday at lunch, he agreed. Luckily we have the best vet and she came over to our house and we said goodbye around 6:00 pm as he laid in his favorite bed.
I was thankful I got to spend about 5 hours with him just like this. We hung out in my bedroom floor and I just petted him all afternoon. He was very calm and relaxed.
I had to run outside to check on Kerry. It was raining and very cold. Kerry spent hours digging the hole behind our house for Hunter. Something my papa always did for us with his backhoe. So that was hard knowing he wasn't around anymore either. When I came back inside Hunter was in his bed curled up and we left him like this until the vet came. We love you so much Hunter. You were a great dog!
Did you know Hunter was kinda famous on Facebook. I would call it going viral in my standards:) I posted this back on August 25th after a rough night with him. Kerry was so good getting up letting him out 3 or 4 times a night if he needed it. I woke up the next morning and just typed what was on my heart. It was about him but also knowing how many people just quit on their animal when it gets tough. I knew we would never quit and we would love him to the very end. This was the picture I posted of him along with my post.
"Even though my patience runs thin some days, I have to remember I made a promise to him 15.5 years ago. I promised to love him his whole life; till the very end even if that means Kerry and I feel like we have a newborn baby to take care of... all night. I love him even when he pees puddles in my kitchen bc he doesn't realize he's not outside. I love him when he poops on the way to the back door because he can't hold it. Love is when I hold the water bowl for him because his body won't let him reach down to drink without falling over. Love is forever; till the last minute. You don't get to break your promise when you have a baby or when you move houses. It's not when they get big and aren't a cute puppy anymore. It's not when they chew up your shoes or dig holes in your backyard. It's not when they aren't potty trained as quickly as you like. Or when they jump all over people because you haven't trained them. It's not when they get to be 10 years old and you're tired of them or when they get sick and you don't want to pay the vet. Or when you aren't a responsible owner and they get heart worms and you don't want to pay for the treatments. Or because they weren't spayed you don't want to deal with a litter of puppies. I know the list can go on and on (especially those who work at the HS and City of Animal Services). I'm sure they've heard every excuse out there. Just remember when you get that puppy or kitten, you've made a promise. You promise to love them their whole life because they will love you completely till the end."
I wish I knew how many people ended up 'viewing' this post. I know that number would be crazy high. But from what I can tell, this post was shared 16,300 times!!!! Isn't that wild and crazy:). Makes me so happy that it reached and touched sooooo many people. I didn't realize this until days later. I don't write a post and then keep checking to see how many "likes" I get. I kept getting lots of friend requests from all these people that I didn't know. My sister called me too and said that a friend of hers had seen my post pasted in an email over 5 times through different animal rescues. So a little weary but I accepted a few requests and one lady quickly responded letting me know how much my post touched her and how many times she's seen it. She was the first one that said viral status. So Kerry and I went back and saw it had been shared 11,000 times and by the end of the day another 1,000. It was so funny to watch that number rise....but the last time I checked was over 16,000. So glad Hunter became a little famous before he passed away. It makes my heart happy.
