Bear’s Story - One Great Dog!
We lost our beloved dog Bear on May 1, 2004 — this is her story:
Once upon a time, a Business Woman from Corporate America, volunteered her team to help out for a day at one of the local Animal Shelters.The woman already had two cats at home, and promised her husband she would not come home with another animal. The husband — knowing the wife very well… just smiled at her as she left for “Animal Shelter Duty”…During the day, the woman and her team did everything from walk dogs, to clean kennels, but low and behold… the woman herself was selected to be a “Puppy Washer”. Puppies had to look pretty in order to be even more cute than they already were to attract attention from prospective families.
Needless to say, the woman fell in love with a tiny little Chow Mix– coal black and very sweet. She was determined NOT to bring the “little bear cub” home but kept being drawn back to the cage with the little baby bears in it. One of them in particular kept trying to get her attention. Throughout the day - the woman and the puppy bonded. What to tell the husband??
All during the day the woman tried frantically to get ahold of her husband just to “talk about” the puppy. She left message after message on their answering machine… each leaving more and more detail about the puppy. In the last message she said simply, I hope you don’t get mad - but I am going to bring one home with me. She hung up with a lump in her stomach.
She knew she couldn’t just bring the pup straight home or her VERY territorial cats would literally throw a fit. She new she would have to cleverly find a way to introduce the pup to the cats (ahem… and her husband). So, she took the puppy to a friends house and drove home to face the music.
When she arrived home, smelling of wet dogs and other stuff… the husband met her at the door. He looked upset! What he was upset about was that there was no puppy! And he said disappointedly, “What happened to the puppy? I thought you were bringing one home!”
The wife told him she took it over to a friends house so she could clean up and get a towel with the cats scent on it to rub on the puppy before she brought her home. The husband broke into a big grin and said… “Well hurry up and go and get our puppy!!”
And that my friends is how our little Bear came to live with us…
We named her Tedye Bear because she looked just like a baby Grizzly cub. Jamey would not call her Tedye Bear (think of a grown man yelling that out the door! LOL) So we shortened it to Bear. And we called her our “BearBear”.
She was the best dog anyone could ever ask for. We loved her like our child (which she was). Very loyal, very protective, very smart. I’m sure the same things all people say about their dogs.
In 2004 when Bear was only 6 years old — she started to hold her head kind of funny. At first it was just kind of cute — like she was inquisitive - but later as she started to bump into things we took her to the vet. Bear was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. We could do nothing but wait for her to get worse — which she did.
On April 30, 2004 our BearBear had her own T-Bone Steak for dinner! We wanted to give her the best treat ever before she left us.
May 1, 2004 — our Vet came to our house to help Bear cross the rainbow bridge. All of our animals gathered around because they knew something was wrong. I spread a nice pink sheet out on the floor and her and I sat on it together. I held her in my arms while my dear husband petted her. As I whispered in her ear how much we loved her — I told her to go into the light where she could run and play and be healthy. I told her that some day we would be together again. I can barely type this through the tears. She passed away peacefully in our living room and in my arms with all her bestest buddies watching (Hanna, TC, & Maggie).
Anyone who says animals do not grieve is an idiot (in my opinion). All of my animals knew exactly what happened to Bear. Which is the way I wanted it. There is nothing worse than having one animal die and the rest of the “family” searching for them. I have been through that before and swore if there was a way not to do it again — I would find one. And I did. By having all our “kids” present when Bear left us was a Blessing. They all understood — and we all grieved together.
We had BearBear’s remains cremated and her ashes are in a lovely urn beside her picture in our bedroom. Having Bear put to sleep was one of the hardest decisions we ever had to make. But we knew it was the best thing for her.
Hanna was most affected by the loss of Bear. It was so hard to watch her lay around being so depressed. I kept telling her it was ok to feel sad, that we missed BearBear too. And I KNOW she knew exactly what I was talking about. I am a big believer in giving yourself time to grieve. So over the months I kept asking Hanna “Do you want Momma to get you a puppy Hanna?” And she would just go nuts. I truly believe she understood me. She got more and more excited as the months went by so I knew we were both ready…
Enter “Baby Kasey”… but that my friends… is a different story.
Bear’s Story - One Great Dog!
