All Dogs Go to Heaven

This title came to mind today. Although I remember a happy movie, today was far from happy. Harley finally decided to stop fighting whatever was going on with her. She stumped the vets since never fully getting over her surgery last Thursday. What a long 4 days of watching and worrying over her. She spent yesterday at the vet so she could be monitored and the vet wanted her to be there again today. He suggested that she spend the night for convenience. I just wanted her to come home to be with us. I'm so glad she was. We both were able to love on her and hold her. I was with her in my bathroom this morning as she crawled to get close to me drying my hair as she breathed her last breaths. It was a terrible, stressful evening and night. We both were up most of it. I rushed her to the emergency vet this morning just to make sure that there was nothing left we could do. It was too late, but they were so respectful and helpful. I was thankful for my mom to rush over and help me once Raymond had to leave for work.

We just got done burying her in our back yard. It was a sweet time of reflecting what all she meant to us. We only had her 3 months. My gosh there were many times that it felt longer. But then I think about what we accomplished with her in that short time. She was so smart. She already knew to sit and lay down on command. She knew to go to the door when she needed to go to the bathroom. She was the friendliest and most loving. I loved that she always had to be close to us. Her latest thing was getting between our legs when we were standing at the sink. She would even stand between us when Ray and I would hug. She was PRECIOUS and PERFECT. I am grateful for the time that we did have with her. As silly as it sounds, it was life changing. For a dog that I wasn't super excited to get, she definitely took a piece of my heart.

Our hearts hurt, but what another reminder of the lesson we are learning that we can still have joy in spite of our circumstances.

Humor me as I share some of my favorite pictures:

Love at first sight!

She always had to be close!

Playful girl!

She loved her grandparents, and they loved her too!

Typical behavior when taking a walk.

On the road!

My kids loved her! They were looking forward to her visiting tomorrow. A few shed tears with me this morning as I shared what happened.

This was her favorite lady like position.

What a big girl she was becoming!

Thanks if you made it this far. I know it's a lot. Jamie, I'm sorry you never got to meet precious Harley. She even told me that she wasn't going to jump on you or lick your toes. You guys would have loved each other.

Sick Puppy

Harley still hasn't eaten anything since her surgery, has trouble going to the bathroom, and now she throws up whenever she drinks. So I called my aunt who knows a lot about dogs, who called someone else, and it was determined that I should take her to see someone today. My vet is closed so I took her to the emergency vet.

Waiting patiently:

He said that her being nauseated and in pain is what is keeping her from eating and being lethargic. So she got two shots to manage those, and hopefully get her interested in food. She still won't have anything to do with food as I write this.

She wouldn't even sit up while we rode in the car! :(

Post Surgery and New Camera

Even two days later, Harley is still a little sluggish and not wanting to eat. Not to mention she threw up at my parents house. They DO love her because they offered to keep her next weekend when Raymond and I are out of town. The little patient is cute with her little purple bandage. Notice the hand...it's my mom's hand. My mom is even more of a non-dog person that I am and so it makes me laugh how she pets her. However, it works on Harley because even today when we went to my parents house for something, my mom clearly was her favorite.

When we arrived, Ashley happened to be standing at the door. Below is the greeting that she gave Harley!

I had to get a new camera. My old one had been dying a slow death since this summer and it officially wouldn't take a picture last week. We ordered a new one online and I LOVE the difference. I never knew what I was missing. I have to practice to figure everything out, and of course my only subject is Harley! :)

Losing her girliehood

Is that a word? Well according to Jamie it is. That is what happened to Harley today and that is how Jamie referred to it. It definitely made me laugh. Poor Harley. Her world has been rocked, but she is such a trooper. We were told to keep her quiet, calm, without jumping and running for 10 days. How you keep a puppy from doing that I'm not sure. Luckily I have tomorrow off and I can stay home with her rather than her being outside or cooped up in her crate. (Who would have thought a few months ago that I would want to stay home with a dog!)

Cat and Mouse

We have both at our house.

The cat: With my parents out of the country, Ashley came to stay with us. She's done it before and it is never a problem, except we didn't have a dog before. Oh my goodness! They aren't friends yet. Those who have met Ashley know she isn't the friendliest cat and Harley is beyond friendly. It doesn't really mix. It is about to drive me crazy when Ashley gets dumb enough to venture out of the guest room thinking that Harley will leave her alone.

The mouse: We thought we were seeing some droppings under our sink but we weren't sure. But we found one in our driveway that was run over. Thankfully I haven't seen any alive...and I'm even more thankful that I have a husband to quickly take care of this problem!

Harley goes to school!

The kids had been asking when I was going to bring Harley to school. Clearly I can't do that and I told them they had to wait until Mr. Harris could bring her. Raymond was off Monday and so he brought Harley to meet the kids. It was so funny how excited they got! I was afraid to let her in with the excitement of everyone and so we went outside in the rain. They swarmed Harley, but she did great!

Harley had plenty of faces and fingers to kiss, but was pooped at the end of the day!

A Dog

So once upon a time I wasn't a dog person. My sister took this picture and emailed it to Raymond last summer titled, "Why Julie doesn't need a dog."Everyone that knows me knows that I don't do dogs. But as soon as Raymond and I were serious, he talked often about having a dog. So it wasn't a mater of IF we would get a dog, it was a matter of WHEN.

Well, the time has come...

Raymond heard about a guy at his work whose dog just had puppies. When he came home to tell me about them, he was very excited. We heard of opportunities to get a dog before but I always had an excuse. Like half of our backyard not having any grass. I didn't want a muddy dog. As soon as he could, Raymond quickly fixed that problem. I still had lots of reasons why we didn't need a dog, but this time I sensed that I really couldn't say no. It did take me about a week to finally fully agree. As soon as I was OK with it, I even got a little excited...just a little.

So last Sunday we went to Walmart.

And picked out a name...Harley.

And Monday was the big day! We told the guy who had the puppies that we wanted a girl. So we met him at Grahams (I guess it was halfway) to pick from 4 of the girl puppies. We didn't have a hard time choosing. Harley came to us immediately and was so loving while all the others just huddled. It was love at first sight for Raymond...I was still working on it. Although I knew that I would love her.

Check out her blue eyes!

Welcome home!

At her previous home, she had always been outside so she was a little cautious to come in.

She was worn out! I finally would hold her after she had a bath.

So it has been an interesting week. There have been a couple of times where I wonder what I was thinking! My mom thinks it would be fun to be a fly on the wall to watch me with her. She now sleeps almost all through the night without crying and up until yesterday I thought I had a pretty good handle on the whole house breaking thing. It has been interesting to see how Raymond and I are so different with her. I'm calm, he's not. I don't let her get away with anything, he does. I wonder if that is what it will be like when we have kids. I can promise that you will NEVER see me on the floor playing with her!

I prefer her to be at my feet. She is really into being close and squeezing between anything to feel cozy.

Overall it has been a lot of fun, and I'm a fan. Only of her...not of dogs! :) I feel like a new mom and have taken a ton of pictures. I'm sure you'll get bored hearing about her on here, but I have to keep her Aunt Jamie updated!