Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Short, Sweet Life of Pippa

We buried a 5-month-old puppy yesterday. Her name was Pippa, and she weighed less than ten pounds. She came to us from Puerto Rico with Allysen, where she had been rescued and made briefly part of Allysen's parents' household. She was adorable and sweet and alert, probably part border collie but tiny.  We decided that she was of the breed Foxbat, or Borinquen terrier, and she captured all of our hearts. She made friends with Hermione, our boxer, who doesn't always like other dogs. Moonlight the cat was a slow adopter, but I was sure it was just a matter of time before they bonded, too.

Pippa never got that time. She was here for just four days before she started having seizures during the night. The seizures subsided for a short time after we started her on some meds from the vet, but soon they returned—frequent and severe. Monday night, late, we took her to the Mass Vet Referral Animal Hospital, where we got the grim news that the outlook was poor without major medical intervention, way beyond anything we could undertake—and even with the intervention, there would be a lot of uncertainties. And so we made the heartbreaking decision to let her go peacefully, which she did while we held her in our laps. We brought her body home, and the next day laid her to rest in the back yard. With her we put the ashes of Sam the beagle and Mattie our first boxer—ashes we'd kept on a shelf for years because we couldn’t bear to do anything about them at the time. It comforted us, thinking that Pippa was in good company.

Here's Pippa, as I imagine her right now on the Rainbow Bridge



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4 Comments:

At 12:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry! She looks sweet.

 
At 2:36 AM, Blogger Jeffrey A. Carver said...

Thanks, Pam. She was, is. Affectionate and full of life. It just doesn't seem right.

 
At 1:39 AM, Anonymous Myric said...

So sorry about the loss of your pup!

I think Gregg Allman put it best when he said (paraphrased here) that every time you bring home a dog you unwittingly bring home a little bit of heartache, too.

We volunteer and foster for German Shepherd Rescue here in L.A. and we've given a loving home to a number of great dogs during their twilight years. Makes me cry every time one of them has had to leave us behind - this coming from an otherwise stoic "tough-guy" type - but I'd bring those overgrown pups home all over again, every single one.

 
At 1:46 AM, Blogger Jeffrey A. Carver said...

Yes.

 

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