Good Bye Sweety

I wasn't going to post this but then decided I wanted to document it into my life. If you are a animal person you will relate to this in some way. I'm not embarrassed to show my feelings for the furry friends in my life. I think dogs and cats are the most loyal people you can ever have in your life. They don't judge you and will love your unconditionally. If you don't care to read about my dog, its ok. My blog is about me. And this was a big part of my life...this gets teary so grab a tissue. Last Monday I had to say goodbye to a good friend. She was my friend for 17-/+ years and I will not forget her. I will miss seeing her when I pull up in my garage, I will miss hearing her famous "hello" growl. (and yes she did have a way it sounded like she was saying hello) This is Sweety.. Don't be scared!! lol! This is her smiling at the camera.. I would say SMILE SWEETY and that is what she did.. I swear this dog wanted to talk just like me. This was taken before all her teeth fell out! =) We are not sure exactly how old she was when she found us. But I narrowed it down to at the least 17 years ago! She was living out behind our house down in a gully in the woods in the dead of winter. Then we later found her staying out in a house we had been tearing down. I made friends with her and she was really sweet.. so that was her name. Sweety. We don't usually keep the strays but once in awhile they sort of stay around. Sweety stayed with us for ALONG TIME! She grew up with my boys, followed them all over the place. She would walk beside me when I would go ride my horse,I live out in the country so I tried to stay out of town area. Because Sweety did like to chase cars. She had one litter of puppies, all black. I never figured out who had a black dog around us??? LOL And she had a mess of puppies! I know it was at about 8 or 9. yeah. I have pictures of them with the boys but couldn't find my older photo albums. I should say box because way before digital came and on line storage I stored my pictures in shoe boxes and then stored those in bigger boxes. I have so many. But I found these pictures as I want to remember her this way.. Happy and young. I don't want to ever go through this again, but I know I will with Baby, my little chihuahua. ( my dog daughter) Sweety lost her hearing and then her legs were giving out on her. The the last couple of weeks were very bad. She was almost dragging her back legs and then couldn't breathe too good. I would have to water her soft food down so much she had to lap it up. I told Doug I'm sorry I can not do this anymore. Even though Sweety would still smile at me I knew she knew it was time too. Monday was a good day , it was sunny and we had a warm front go through. I called the vet and he said he would be out that evening. I spent time with her, helped her go out to the warm sun beam beside the garage. When the vet came it happened too fast. But I got down on the muddy ground and put her head in my lap, held her paw. Doug and my oldest son, Stephen came out too. We had a Marley and Me moment, I bawled just as hard as I did watching that movie. The vet said she will go to sleep then she could take her last breathe and not to be alarmed. She didn't take that breathe, she just simply closed her eyes and laid still. Before she did, she looked up at me and I smiled at her. I think she was trying to say goodbye to us too. I have had A LOT Of dogs in my life but this is the first one I had to put down. They usually would die on their own or we would give them good homes. My son went on to work, with red eyes. Doug and I laid a piece of carpet on a cart and then I found a flannel sheet and we wrapped her in it. Doug already had a place ready for her. I laid two dog biscuits she loved inside. We planted some peach trees last summer and he put her between two of them. She will have shade as there are woods to the north of her and we made sure she was facing the south east so she will always have the sun on her face. What was nice was as soon as we were done covering her up, a mess of birds flew over. I took that as a sign she is still with us...then I started bawling again. We gave her a hair cut a couple of years. She looked funny here. Some one told us not cut a dogs hair as it helps insulate them against heat and cold. So we didn't do it haven't that. Doug did try to cut it his self but with her double coat it was a mess. She looked like she had the mange lol This is my favorite pic of her. Well that is my story for Sweety. Me and Baby walk past her resting area every day on our walks out back. She stopped the first day and smelled the fresh pile of dirt then sat down and was quiet. Its like she knew? Dogs can smell anything so maybe she smelled what it was all about. R.I.P. Sweety. 1995?- 2/20/2012