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When writing about one of my favorite girls, words have flowed pretty easily for me, but not today. You see, my little PiperGirl has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. She was so brave, so beautiful, so caring and loving all the way to the end. But the pain was too much for her, I knew it, and she knew it. I didn’t want to let my baby go, but I knew she needed to, and my heart is broken
Last night, as I walked around my home, it felt empty, quiet. I begin to recall all the memories I have of my little girl, and I realized all the gifts she has given me these last 12 years. She taught me about true happiness, she taught me of unconditional love, she taught me how to be a kid again, to be a good parent, and how to live in the moment. She was truly the most special being in the world.
Piper, you were so much a part of our lives, and although I miss you terribly and a piece of my heart is missing, I know you are always with us, that you watching over us. I knew last night when the snow began to fall that you sent it us, because playing in the snow was one of your favorite things to do. I miss you my sweet P, rest in peace.
Piper Cub
January 22, 2000 – February 11, 2012
I want to Thank everyone for all your support and love these last few months. You made an unbearable situation easier, and I will always be grateful.
Today we have 2 celebrations here at our home, and both are for our little PG3. You see, today is Piper’s 12th Birthday and it is also her 4 month Ampuversary!! We are so blessed to have been given this gift of being able to celebrate both these milestones for our little girl. We had a birthday party for her, invited some of her human friends and she had a great time! She had cake, ice cream, and received lots of treat presents (not treats she normally has, but we figured what the heck right!?). It was a perfect day for our perfect pup. At the party I recalled the day we got Piper. It was my 32nd Birthday and my hubby (who was just my fiance at the time) was being very elusive as to what he had gotten for me. All day long he asked strange questions, such as: What is your favorite animal at the zoo? How long did you take riding lessons? Did you ever ride a horse on the beach? What’s your favorite color? He told me we needed to drive to get to my present, and since we had lived in Florida at the time, I thought we were going to ride horses on the beach. But the longer we drove inland, I knew that wasn’t it. We were driving in a very rural area with lots of horse-crossing signs, so I assumed we were going riding somewhere. We arrived at our destination and were told to go to the back towards the barn, aha, we are going riding! On our way I saw a pen with the cutest, little, yellow labs. I asked the owner if I could pet them, he looked at me strangely and said, yes of course. As I was petting them and getting lots of sloppy puppy kisses the owner said to me “There are 7 females, pick the one you want.” I was confused, I looked at him, then at my husband who smiled at me at said Happy Birthday!! I started crying I was so happy. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted, they were all so cute and frisky and playful. I narrowed it down to 2, the biggest and lightest colored ones. I set them down in the grass, moved about 6 ft. from them and just watched them. I patted my legs and said “come here” and my little Piper came barreling at me. She was the one!! As we drove back to our apt., Piper sat herself on my shoulders behind my neck, leaning against the window of the pickup’s cab licking my ears. We got home, had her do a pee-pee, and brought her inside. She ran around into every room in our apt., sniffing and checking things out. When she finished, she came back in the living room, stood in the middle of the room, looked at us, and then took the messiest poop ever!! 🙂 Ha ha ha – That’s our girl and she’s been putting smiles on our faces ever since! So, in honor of Piper’s day, we want all you doggy mommies and daddies to give your little ones an extra treat and let them know it’s from Piper. Here are some pics of Piper’s special party, enjoy!!
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last wrote, so much has happened!! First let me say that our PG3 is still with us and is doing great. She is only taking 1/2 the amount of pain killers she is allowed (3 a day, was prescribed 6 a day) and she is a bright-eyed, bushy tailed, happy little pup. I couldn’t ask for more. 🙂
We went to Ohio for the Holidays and Piper did well during the 10 hr. drive. She was a little stiff when we arrived, but was back to her old self after a couple of days. We stayed at my mom’s and my sister has a rescue flat-coated retriever named Henry. Piper and Henry are the best of cousins and were so happy to see each other!! Henry was a little tentative around Piper during our stay, he wasn’t his usually jumpy-self with her. I think he may have sensed something was wrong, other than her missing leg, but none-the-less, he still laid next to her and gave her lots of kisses. He even brought her toys a few times. He’s such a sweet dog.
It snowed pretty heavily one of the days we were there, and PG was so excited to see the snow!! I took her outside, let her lay down and watched her revel in it! She buried her snout in the snow, tried to roll around and make puppy angels; it was such a special moment for me to be out there with her. Of course I had to throw some snowballs at her, and she, as per usual, was trying to bite them. She was covered in snow and was loving it (I wish I had thought to bring my camera out with me)! Henry followed us out after a few minutes, and Piper jumped up to play with him! It made me very nervous because we don’t let her walk on her own. We know the leg is fragile, and fear she may fracture it, but you know labs, they think they can do things when they shouldn’t! I quickly grabbed her harness as Henry approached, and my little girl stood on her one back leg, and pawed at Henry with the other two. A tear fell down my face, it was so good to see her so happy and full of life, especially since it was such a short time ago that I thought she would be crossing the rainbow bridge. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with our family, friends, and especially our little girl. It’s definitely a Christmas I will always remember.
Here’s a picture of Piper with her Christmas tree, and her new ornament that Cali gave to her – the red dog house, complete with a picture of Cali and Piper 🙂
Well, the 10 days leading up to Dad’s homecoming were trying at best, and the last 2, just awful. With only hours to Dad to being home, I found Piper had escaped the dining room area I have her in and was lying on the hardwood floor pretty much wedged between the wall and refrigerator (about a 3 ft. space). I thought she was gone, but she just couldn’t get up. As I was losing it, crying and shaking, my amazing 5 yr old had the mind to run and get the sling for me. God love my little girl. I couldn’t get the sling around her so I had to slide her back to her room. She was cloudy-eyed, and I thought, she’s lost her will, she’s done, the medicines aren’t keeping her comfortable any longer. She wouldn’t eat, drink and didn’t want to go out to do her business. I made an appt. at the vets for the next morning. I figured, worst case, we could take her to the emergency vet that night, if needed, after we picked up her Dad.
On our way home from picking up my husband, I warned him of her condition and told him of the appt. He was upset but knew we had to do what we had to do. When we got home, I went in first to make sure Piper didn’t try to get up. Then he walked in the door and you would have thought there wasn’t a thing wrong with Piper! Her eyes glowed, her tail wagged uncontrollably, the kisses just flowed!! It was amazing to see the change in her, she was a completely different dog just hours before, more like herself than she had been in weeks. I couldn’t believe it!! We decided to wait until morning to see how she was doing…and to say we were surprised is an understatement. She was wide awake, tail thumping up a storm, an undeniable smile on her face when she saw us (well, more my husband than me but I’m taking some of it LOL). She ate like a mad woman, went out potty, and couldn’t stop wagging that crazy tail of hers!! I told my husband that I was upset about how hard Piper had worked with her walking and how I so wanted to them to walk their daily route.
Well about 30 minutes later my hubby said “Let’s take our girls for a walk,” I said how, and then he showed me.
It wasn’t the kind of walk I was hoping for , but it was awesome and Piper just loved it!!! She’s been doing so great all weekend. We know that we don’t have much time with our little PiperGirl, but we are going to cherish every moment we have, and make the most of them. We even managed to put up our tree and take our Christmas card photo this weekend. Thank God Daddy is home….
Merry Christmas from The Henderson’s
Thanksgiving is approaching, and as I give thanks for the many blessings I have, I sit here wondering why things happen in life, the timing of it all and I find myself questioning some of the decisions I have made lately. One thing I am so grateful for is that my little girl has had a happy couple of months and I hope these next 2 weeks will be just as happy for her. You see, we just got back from the surgeon and he confirmed that my little PiperGirl has cancer in her right humerus. I know what needs to be done, but I just can’t bring myself to do it before her dad gets home. 10 days, 10 short days…is it selfish and cruel of us to want to wait until he is here? I know she misses him as much as he misses her…she hears his voice when we skype, and her tail goes crazy. How do I not wait? And can I make her comfortable enough so that these last days we have together aren’t ones of enormous pain for her? And what do I tell my 5 yr old daughter? How do I explain to her what comes next for her sister?
As I sit here and type, knowing what comes next, my heart slowly breaking into what feels like a million pieces, I look over at my little girl with those expectant eyes, perked ears and wagging tail, knowing her mom is sad and wanting to make ME feel better. Almost saying, “come on Mom let’s walk, let’s play, it’ll make you feel better, it always does.” She has no idea…she just wants to live in the moment and have fun like we always do. I wish I could walk her, but the doctor said no, that could cause a fracture and then we wouldn’t have any time. So all I can do is love her, pet her, scratch her behind the ears and at her in favorite spot just above her tail, give her lots and lots of treats and enjoy every single second I have with her until she goes to the Rainbow Bridge, leaving me wishing for one more day…
I want to again thank everyone here for all your love and support. You have made this journey for us one that was easier to bear and I will forever be grateful to the friends I have met through this incredible website. I’ve always said “dog people” were the best, and I was right. Blessings to all of you on this Thanksgiving.
♥ ♥ Sisterly love ♥ ♥
Well, it’s been 2 weeks since Piper’s last visit to the vet. In those 2 weeks, we’ve gotten her booties, been on anti-inflammatories the entire time, and she’s been doing really well. She’s getting used to the booties and moving herself around the house without any problems (ok, the first couple of times were pretty funny, but she’s doing much better). She’s still been limping a little, so I took her back to the vet today for another shot and more medicine. I also wanted her vet to see her, see if there was something else going on with her. While we were there today the vet decided to do some x-rays and, though she couldn’t tell me definitively, she is suspecting my little girl may have cancer now in her right front humerus. 🙁
We have to see the surgeon again for more x-rays so we can determine if that is the case. My vet couldn’t really tell by her x-rays, and would rather have the surgeon take a look and see what he thinks. I am so heartbroken. I am trying to think positively, and praying that is it just a muscle issue that hasn’t quite healed, but I’m just so scared. If it is cancer, I know what I have to do, but I will wait for her daddy to come home, since he’ll be home in 15 days. I want him to have a happy homecoming, not one filled with the dread of what we may have to do. Please pray for my PG, and I will update all of you when I have some answers. Thank you to everyone for all your love and support these last couple of months. I really couldn’t have done this without you.
I know it’s been quite a while since I have last written, and since then we have had some ups and downs. My PG was doing amazing, taking 1 mile walks without her sling and moving about the house on her own (downstairs only) – life seemed to be going along normally. That was until I decided that my stinky girl was in need of a bath, so, I took her to the groomers. I know it’s my fault for not insisting they take the sling, I should have known better, well sure enough PG slipped on their tile floor and pulled a muscle in her right front shoulder. My poor girl, she doesn’t have a leg to spare any longer, and was really struggling to walk. I took her to our vet the next day, and they gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and a weeks worth of pills. I hate giving PG medicine, it changes her personality so much and all she wants to do is sleep. I know that sleep is a good thing so that her muscles can heal, but she seems so sad. Well, after a week, she was doing so much better, just about to her old self, even going for walks again without her sling, when again, she slipped – this time on a pair of my daughter’s friend’s shoes Halloween night. The last couple of days she looked a little sore, but nothing like it was from her slip at the groomers. But today, she’s holding that leg up 🙁 So, it’s back to the vet we go this afternoon. To top it off, our house is complete hardwood floors. I have purchased area rugs, runners, smaller rugs for the smaller areas, but she always seems to find that 1 ft. of carpet-free space to slip on (that’s where the shoes were). Life’s sure been a roller coaster…I’m hoping it’s mostly uphill from here on out.
My little witchie poo and her pumpkin girl (I think PG was embarrassed by her costume 🙂 )
If you would have told me 1 month ago that my PiperGirl would be taking 1 mile walks with me by today (sans the sling), I would have said you were crazy, but, here we are!!! Happy 1 month Ampuversary to my brave, amazing, wonderful, sloppy kissing, fuzzy little girl!! I love you so much and I couldn’t be prouder of all you have accomplished in this short time. Your Daddy is looking forward to taking you on your special walks when he gets home!! Cheese treats for everyone today!!
Well Thursday we celebrated our 3 week Ampuversary – yeah us!!! But Friday morning I thought we had a set back. Let me explain a little background…Piper has, what the vet calls, old age worts. She has one on her right front leg right in the area of where they had the IV. Well, she’s been biting at it since the cone came off. So I purchased some wrap from her vet to cover it so she couldn’t get at it. When I awoke Friday morning, I noticed PG3 limping on her right front leg. I thought to myself, oh no, she only has 3 legs, there can’t be anything wrong with another!! I then noticed she had managed to push the wrap down to get at her wort, and it was tight!! I gave her an anti-inflammatory and called the vet. She told me that the limp was probably from the wrap being too tight, and to check it in 24 hrs. So, Sat. morning came and the limp was going away!! I was so relieved!! She is doing much better, and had even walked a little while outside without her sling today!! Of course I had to take a pic and a video!! My PiperGirl…you’ve come a long way baby!!
PipersFirstSlingFreeWalk
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Hello all…today is PG3’s 2 week Ampuversary! She got her stitches out today and is sooooo happy not to have to wear the cone-of-shame any longer! I have been allowing her to have free roam of the house today (well, the downstairs), and she is doing great! She is walking around all on her own. I am still using the sling when I take her outside to do her business, but when we get into the house, the sling comes off, and she takes off!
I am so happy that she has been recovering so well. Those first few days were such a trying time for me, and obviously I was so worried about my decision and her ability to get around. Well, she has sure shown me that she can do it and she’s doing it beautifully!
pipersmom