by B. R.
Lady was my beautiful black Labrador/Shepherd mix who I got at our local pound with her sister. They were 3 months old and I fell in love with them right away. I was fortunate to have her for almost 12 years.
My Lady got sick in the December of 1998. I kept taking her to her regular vet that she had been seeing since she was a puppy. She had a fever and could not keep anything down. For two months, I had her on antibiotics, although she was never officially diagnosed with anything. He just kept telling me that she had an infection, but he could not figure out what it was. She was seeing him twice a week for two months when she finally got a clean bill of health. Three days later, she was sick again and I decided to take her somewhere else. The second Vet. Diagnosed her right away and told me the prognosis was not very good. My Lady had Valley Fever (that is a common disease here in the southwest, but I never knew dogs could get it). He told me that the recovery would take up to 6 months and that there was no guarantee because it went undiagnosed for so long.
Well, Lady put up a valiant fight, but I had finally had to put her down 6 weeks later. The Valley Fever had spread to her brain and she kept having seizure after seizure. She had a 105 temperature that they could not bring down and at the end; she was in a coma. For anyone who has to make this decision, listen to your heart, and do not let anybody push you into something you are not ready. No one knows your animal better than you do. I am at peace with my decision because I knew my Lady fought as hard as she could for as long as she could. I did have people tell me to put her down, but I would not listen to them. When I finally made the decision, I knew there was no hope for her and that she was ready to go.
However, this is not a story of death and sorrow, this is a story of a puppy from heaven.
I went back to my local pound 3 months later to find a companion for my other dog that will be 13 years old in May. Looking through all those cages, you just want to cry because you want to take them all home. Well, in the very last cage I looked in, there was my Lady as she looked when I saw here 12 years earlier. This little puppy was a replica of her and I fell in love with her right away. I got her, took her home and named her Scrappy.
Well, my Scrappy was not exactly healthy. She was diagnosed with Distemper 3 days later and her lungs were totally full of fluid. The vet I took her to was the same that tried to help Lady at the end. He never once told me to put her down, he gave me hope and for that, I will always be grateful. I had my Scrappy on antibiotics for almost 3 months, 3 times a day. She could play for an hour and sleep for four because she was so weak.
I am happy to say that my Scrappy is now a healthy 11-month-old puppy that drives me crazy. She still reminds me of my Lady in looks only. Where my Lady was a calm, peaceful, lazy dog, my Scrappy is a wild child that thinks the back yard is a big forest with creatures made just for her to terrorize. But the one she terrorizes the most is my older dog. At first I was worried about it thinking my older dog, Sheena, would turn around and bite her. But that has never happened. My Sheena just opens one eye, looks at this rambunctious puppy, and goes back to sleep.
I truly believe that Scrappy is Lady's puppy from heaven. She sent her to me because she knew my heart was broken from losing her. I was prepared to take care of another sickly dog because of my experience with Lady and I had no doubt that my Scrappy would survive. When I first got her, I thought she was perfect because she hardly caused any trouble. I could not understand why her first owners took her to the pound because she was no mischievous. Now that she is healthy, I could see why they would take her back. But she is mine for eternity and she has renewed our household with something we were missing since we lost Lady.
I could go on and on about my life with my puppy and my old girl. However, as I am writing, my puppy is fighting with a winged serpent that flew into our yard and she needs rescuing, all right it is a plastic bag to you and me. I can safely say that if I am ever attacked by plastic bags, my Scrappy will protect me because she has so much practice in killing them. Although I loved and still do love my Lady, I love my Scrappy just as much. I guess what I would like to say is this: You think you will never love another animal like the one you lost, but just walk through your local pound and you will find that love again. You will never replace the one you lost, but you will find a new best friend that will just try to please you because you gave them a second chance to live.