What we do for our pets!

My dear old Jessie......we got her here in Great Falls in September of 1992. My dad sent me money for my birthday.....(hoping I would use the money for something good or put it in the bank).....but of course I had to do something else with that money and bought a puppy! We saw her in the pet shop and she was a barker......the lady at the pet shop was so happy to get rid of her! I should have known then the years ahead of us would be mixed blessings!

When we got the little one home she was so cute! She was scared of her own shadow. I wanted to call her sissy but Lloyd would have nothing to do with a dog named sissy...so she was named after a kid down the street we never did meet. We had another beagle at the time....Boomer and he was one happy dog when we brought home Jessie......he was old at the time and he truly came to life when he had a friend. One thing about Jessie though was she was an escape artist and a thief. Through the years we would be looking for her after she escaped from her fenced in back yards or having to put child locks on refrigerators or having to lock up our trash can! If you ever read "Marley" or have had a dog like this you know what I am talking about.

Now we are in the twilight years of her life and each day we have her is a blessing. Over Thanksgiving we thought it was the end of a long life. She stopped eating and almost completely stopped drinking. She was listless and was running to her dog house to hide or down to her kennel. On Thanksgiving day I wasn't sure she was going to survive the day.

Well she did so I called the vet early in the morning......of course the only vet I could find was a big vet clinic with a high overhead! He really thought she was dying as well. He figured it was liver failure caused by old age and her use of steroids for her allergies..........after blood work and X-rays and a bill for $300 I was told we don't know what is wrong. He suggested crazy surgery to look for a tumor he wasn't sure was there at a cost of 600 bucks! After I said no to that he said an ultra sound but it would be sending her off to a town 2 hours away for only God knows how much money that would be. I finally looked at him and said how can I make her comfortable and thought she was just going to pass away. Well wouldn't you know it come Saturday morning 5 days after very little to drink and nothing to eat she was back to her old self! She has been fine ever since.

I can only think prayers from friends helped. I truly didn't think God had time for my dog but everything else is unexplainable. I am sure it was for me as I don't think I was ready to loose yet another pet before the holidays. I know my dog is old and her days are limited but she is another pet that has been just about everywhere with us. Despite her crazy antics over the years she is part of us and we love her a lot.

I will look for an old picture of her as a puppy......she was so CUTE! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.