Farewells...

Today was Kenneth's last day home before he heads back to Louisiana and then overseas sometime soon. I am heart heavy to say goodbye, and yesterday was such a highs/lows day for us. Christmas was wonderful at my inlaws cabin in the mountains, lots of great food and pictures and gifts exchanged. But it ended really sadly. One of our foster puppies had been sick since Saturday. They'd been dewormed Wednesday and we were told they'd have some upset stomach as everything worked its way out, so when she started acting sick Saturday am we thought she just needed a day to be sick and that she'd start feeling better soon. She didn't eat or drink that whole day except for just a little water once. She also vomitted three times and that's when I started worrying it wasn't just worms. On Sunday she was really listless and looked worse than the day before and I called the rescue group owner and gave her the update. She said one of the siblings she was fostering had similar symptoms and had been at the vet for two days but parvo test was negative and doctor said it was just stomach upset essentially, she said she'd stop by our house Monday am with iv fluids and antibiotics. By the afternoon though we were not thinking she was going to make it through the night - she was keeping fluids that we were giving via syringe down, but was SO lethargic and looked awful... we stopped at the emergency vet on our way home that evening. Within a couple hours of her being there, they'd run a CBC on her that showed her white cell count was only 500 which is VERY low. Her glucose levels were also very, very low. At that point the Dr. said we need to run a parvo test. They did. It was positive. She died about 2 hours after that... So I bawled a lot last night, and Irina (the rescue group owner) was able to get back to me about an hour after we got the phone call that Penny didn't make it. I'd been sending her texts and leaving voicemails but she was somewhere her phone wasn't working for those hours. It was heartbreaking all around. Penny had been a lively, chunky, happy, bouncy puppy just 2 days before and then she was just gone. Parvo is horrible, horrible, horrible... We're keeping a very close eye on her sister now, but if she's been with Penny this whole time and is still happy and healthy her chances are good... Anyhow, it was lots of ups and downs yesterday to say the least. So I say farewell to sweet baby Penny... we only had one very short week with her here on this earth and it was far from long enough. She had a home pretty much lined up and everything. I am so sad for her, for this loss of innocent life for something so senseless. It infuriates me and saddens me. I know these things happen, I know there's really not much else we could have done, and none of that matters - my heart hurts for her loss and for all she suffered before she left this earth. I pray she felt some love and comfort in her days with us... and I pray her sister stays healthy, happy and bouncy and will be on her way to her home soon where she will live a long and full life...

Maple is the brown puppy, Penny is the black baby girl...

We just got back from dropping Kenneth off at the airport, he should be in the air right now on his way to the Houston airport... it has been such an emotional couple days and I am going to miss him and I will worry about him even though kept telling me he'll be home in no time and his job isn't dangerous. Silly boy, like that'll stop me!! :)

Here are a couple pictures from Christmas that I loved and hopefully I'll be getting updates and pictures from him in his new work location very soon and getting to hear how he's doing and how he likes his job.