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We'll miss you, Asha!
Yesterday, we said goodbye to my girly girl, Asha. I adopted her on February 5, 2000 from the LaGrange, GA shelter. It was my first day to volunteer there. We had been out on an off-site adoption all day and Asha had not been adopted. She kept sitting near me toward the end of the day. She had already been at the shelter for 2 months, so I knew (and she probably knew) her days were numbered. So, being the sucker that I am, I decided to adopt her. Keep in mind that I had no intentions of having more than one dog. (Cole, my black Lab, was turning 2 that very weekend.) I thought maybe Cole would enjoy having a friend. Well, they never really loved each other. I think they just tolerated each other. Cole really wanted to be an only child. Anyway, Asha turned out to be a really good dog. 
She was always so healthy until the last year. In late June 2007, while bathing her, I discovered that her head was sunken in just above and below her right eye. We never got an actual diagnosis (due to the cost involved), but the vet suspected she had a peripheral nerve sheath tumor. We decided that since she still seemed happy, was eating well, and was still chasing everything that moved, we would just keep an eye on her and make sure she was always comfortable. 
The last couple of months, her condition seemed to worsen and she wasn't the Asha we knew. She would stumble and fall, get disoriented, and just generally seemed unhappy. She wanted to stay inside all the time (which was definitely not like her). So, we made the decision you never really ever want to have to make. We like to think she's somewhere up there chasing Cole and grabbing onto his ear while he's trying to catch the frisbee! Or she's in a pasture, herding the cows (one of her all-time favorite things to do!). Thanks for being my girly girl for 8 1/2 years and thanks for choosing me. We'll miss you, Asha-girl!
It's so weird around here now. We have gone from 3 fur kids to 2 fur kids and now to 1 fur kid in less than a year. Petey is our only fur kid now. And I would swear that he's a little sad and feeling a little lonely now. (That's all 3 fur kids sunning in the backyard. They loved Spring and Fall days when they could lie on their Coolaroo beds and enjoy the sun.) Some people may think I'm a weirdo for loving my dogs so much. But you have to keep in mind there was a time in my life when I didn't think I would get married, and certainly didn't think I would have children of my own. So my dogs were my kids. And look what happened... Dan married me despite the fact that I had THREE dogs!
Yesterday, we said goodbye to my girly girl, Asha. I adopted her on February 5, 2000 from the LaGrange, GA shelter. It was my first day to volunteer there. We had been out on an off-site adoption all day and Asha had not been adopted. She kept sitting near me toward the end of the day. She had already been at the shelter for 2 months, so I knew (and she probably knew) her days were numbered. So, being the sucker that I am, I decided to adopt her. Keep in mind that I had no intentions of having more than one dog. (Cole, my black Lab, was turning 2 that very weekend.) I thought maybe Cole would enjoy having a friend. Well, they never really loved each other. I think they just tolerated each other. Cole really wanted to be an only child. Anyway, Asha turned out to be a really good dog. 
She was always so healthy until the last year. In late June 2007, while bathing her, I discovered that her head was sunken in just above and below her right eye. We never got an actual diagnosis (due to the cost involved), but the vet suspected she had a peripheral nerve sheath tumor. We decided that since she still seemed happy, was eating well, and was still chasing everything that moved, we would just keep an eye on her and make sure she was always comfortable. 
The last couple of months, her condition seemed to worsen and she wasn't the Asha we knew. She would stumble and fall, get disoriented, and just generally seemed unhappy. She wanted to stay inside all the time (which was definitely not like her). So, we made the decision you never really ever want to have to make. We like to think she's somewhere up there chasing Cole and grabbing onto his ear while he's trying to catch the frisbee! Or she's in a pasture, herding the cows (one of her all-time favorite things to do!). Thanks for being my girly girl for 8 1/2 years and thanks for choosing me. We'll miss you, Asha-girl!
It's so weird around here now. We have gone from 3 fur kids to 2 fur kids and now to 1 fur kid in less than a year. Petey is our only fur kid now. And I would swear that he's a little sad and feeling a little lonely now. (That's all 3 fur kids sunning in the backyard. They loved Spring and Fall days when they could lie on their Coolaroo beds and enjoy the sun.) Some people may think I'm a weirdo for loving my dogs so much. But you have to keep in mind there was a time in my life when I didn't think I would get married, and certainly didn't think I would have children of my own. So my dogs were my kids. And look what happened... Dan married me despite the fact that I had THREE dogs!
2 comments:
Hope you're doing okay. It is not strange at all to treat these dogs like kids. They give us so much love, they deserve it. Maybe we can (slowly) introduce Chelsea and Petey and they can have playdates.
I'm sorry to hear about Asha. She had a better life because you were in it. Thank you for your kind words about Trudie. It's strange - looks like we found and lost our dogs at almost exactly the same time.
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