I really apologize for not updating the website over the past few months but I have been experiencing some real sadness and depression with the loss of the last two dogs in my family of three. It’s been really hard to just get up and put a fake smile on to get through the day.
In 2008 I got a beautiful Rat Terrier from the Bonham Animal Shelter which replaced the loss of my beloved Black Cocker Spaniel which I had since 2002. She passed away from a kidney issue.
Latte-Kisses was the name of the Ratty I got because she gave a lot of kisses and ran around like someone drinking too many Latte’s. Latte was great, she was born in 2006 and became stray after a local heavy thunderstorm. She was my buddy and pal. She gave me two litters of puppies and of those I kept the runts of each; Cinnamon and Patch. Cinnamon a beautiful brown brindle and Patch a black and gray brindle. Patch was smaller than Cinnamon and might have had a small mix of Chihuahua in her. Cinnamon and Patch were inseparable even though they were from separate litters.
In 2022 Latte lost her life to canine diabetes. That was a hard loss for me but I still had a healthy Cinnamon and Patch, well unknown to me that was about to change.
After a coughing fit in mid October Patch had a heart attack and passed away 12 days later from the complication surrounding that. There were no signs that she had heart issues, she always passed her vet check-ups and was always current on shots and preventative care. She was not positive for heartworms, she left no clues that she was in potential trouble. It just happened.
When I came home from the pet hospital without Patch in tow, Cinnamon let out the loudest scream and cry I had ever heard from a dog. She knew right then and there that her pal wasn’t coming home. I think it was at that point she lost her own will to live. She cried for about a week then her own health quickly went to crap. She did have Cancer from birth but it was never an issue until after Patch left us. Cinnamon was put to sleep a week before Thanksgiving 2024 at the age of 15, Patch was also 15 and Latte was 16. The maximum lifespan of most small dogs is 14-16 years and Rat Terriers 15-16 years in fact the bread that lives the longest is the Chihuahua with the longest living in the gneisses book of world records living to 21. So they all lived their lives to about the maximum.
When they go, they go fast! There isn’t always a lot of warning and it always comes as a shock.
My best friends, the reasons I woke up in the morning or even came home at night. I always put them first and before my desires. Even when in the hospital I was more concerned with them than myself. And they are gone in a flash and just before the holidays. I was completely destroyed!
I kept reliving what I didn’t do for them over the years in my head, I kept thinking about what I could have done more and even better. Things I wanted to do with them but didn’t. Yeah I was a mess, well I still am as I don’t even have Cinnamon’s ashes back yet.
I was then and still am today blown away at how fast 15 years went by. I remember very clearly treating both litters for Parvo while Cinnamon was hospital treated for the illness. I remember taking Cinnamon in for heartworm disease and Patch when the vet took out most of her teeth. I remember all the tornado warning that we all gathered for safety and every good and bad moment with them to their death’s. Their deaths all came so terribly fast, I was never prepared for it. We can prepare for the death of a human but we don’t see it coming in our own pets. They don’t live forever!
Dogs are mentioned in the bible even in revelation where they are in heaven. My prayer is that they find each other in heaven even if I never see them. I want them to have the peace they gave me on earth. I know dogs only have a spirit not a soul but I have to believe, Jesus, My savior has a special place for even dogs in heaven.