My girls have become such good buddies with them. They love on them and play with them as if they were human...and truth be told, I'm not sure that the dogs even realize that they are dogs!
On Tuesday somehow one of our side gates blew open. We did not realize it at first, but of course as soon as we realized it we got it shut securely. When we checked on the dogs we realized that instead of having two dogs in the yard we only had one. Of course, my stomach sunk, because we now live very close to a highway, and I knew that it might be hard for her to find her way back to us since we haven't lived here long.
So we spent all of Tuesday afternoon driving around the neighborhood calling for sweet Rosey. No sight of her anywhere. Joel and I took turns driving around and calling out for her until late in the night, but no luck :-( Our other dog, Shelley, moped around all evening so we let her sleep inside that night. She was very restless and cried and moaned several times. She was lonely. She had never been apart from her sister before.
So Wednesday morning I printed up some fliers and the girls and I set out to hang up as many as possible so we could find our precious Rosey. We went to the post office, dog groomers, vet clinics, animal control, and so on... We had finally gotten to all of the places we thought would be good places for a "Lost Dog" sign when I got a phone call. I was driving, so I pulled over because I had a feeling it would be a call about Rosey from the the number. I was expecting it to be animal control to tell us that they had her. Instead it was one of the vet's offices that we had visited. The vet told us that a good samaritan had brought Rosey in Tuesday evening and that she had been hit by a car. Her neck, back & pelvis were broken and she was paralyzed. He had to put her down.
My stomach felt sick. I was sad because she was such a sweet dog, and I wasn't sure how in the world I was going to explain this to my children who were sitting in the back seat and knew I was having a conversation about Rosey with someone. I thanked the vet and turned around to tell my girls. The looks on their faces and the wailing that followed was the most heart-wrenching thing ever. We've lost other pets and we've lost loved ones, but it has always been because of old age which is understandable to a child. Losing a 1 year old, happy, healthy little dog is not understandable to a child. And to tell them that she had been hit by a car was the worst part.
I was able to get the "good samaritan's" name from the vet and I went to thank her. She was such a precious lady and she assured me that she stayed by Rosey's side and stroked her head until the very end because she could tell that she had been well-loved. She was so sweet, kind and gentle, and this total stranger hugged me as we stood there and cried together. I will never forget her or her kindness.
The girls and I spent Wednesday afternoon at home loving on Shelley, who was still very sad and mopey. Shelley has refused to eat since Rosey went missing, so we've had to add "people food" to it to bribe her to eat. I tried to keep the girls' minds off the situation by taking them to the park and letting them play outside in the sunshine and fresh air. They did pretty good for the most part, but poor little Lily (whom Rosey belonged to) had many bouts of despair. She would be playing fine, then suddenly drop to her knees and start crying. It was almost unbearable for me.
Lily insisted that we not let the vet bury Rosey. She was very persistent that we go get her from the vet's office so that we could bury her at our new land where we are building a house. So Joel went by on his way home from work to pick her up and we drove out to the land to let Lily pick a place to bury her. She chose a spot not far from where our new house will be where there was a huge boulder. I told her that we would paint the huge boulder and decorate it with Rosey's name. She also insisted that she see Rosey and pet her just one more time...it was absolutely gut-wrenching. She wailed as she pet her dog for the very last time. Here are the girls saying their final good-bye.
Today we are trying to accomplish some school work, but the conversation keeps turning to Rosey. I'm sure it will be a while before we get over this one. Right now we're just going to try to love on Shelley as much as possible. I'm sure it will make us feel better and Shelley as well.
This is our favorite picture of Rosey. It's from the snow storm back in February. I had let the dogs out to potty and she came back to the door so proud of the "treasure" she had brought me :-)
She had a funny little personality, just like Lily. She was the wilder and more hyper of the two dogs, but also the more cuddly and lovable....just like Lily. It's funny how their personalities match that of their puppies! We are going to miss Rosey terribly. Please pray for Lily and her sensitive little heart as she deals with this loss at such a young age.
