Wookie would have been ten today. I miss her so much and think about her every day.
She was a feisty girl with attitude but she was my baby. The house is often too quiet without her presence.
Tag: Wookie
Wookie’s 8th Birthday
Today would have been Wookie’s 8th birthday.
Two years ago when she was diagnosed with kidney disease, I happened to notice a chart on the wall showing small dogs’ lifespan in human years. According to it, Wookie would have been 48 years old when she turned 8. I am 48 years old right now, so I hoped we could be 48 together. When she passed I was extremely sad that we’d never be the same age.
Less than a week ago I came across a video discussing something called a Lap Day, which marks the moment when you and your dog match in age, measured in dog years. I put our info into one of the calculators online and got the below result.
It makes me happy to know we synced up in age after all, and on Joe’s birthday, no less.
I still miss her so much.
Olive the Schnoodle
We recently had a new dog… for 24 hours. Lest you think we’re impulsive people who don’t think through our decisions, let me explain.
We saw Olive, a 5 month old Schnoodle (Schnauzer Poodle mix) at an adoption event at the Plainfield Pet Supplies Plus on July 6th.
She was the sweetest little thing – we were able to pick her up and she cuddled with us immediately. The rescue had us take her for a little walk around the store but we ultimately decided not to adopt. I was worried her bark might bother my ear* (there was a blurb about her on their website stating she had an unusual high-pitched bark).
* Ever since my sickness in 2019-2020 my right ear has been sensitive to certain frequencies, usually in the high-pitch range, which is ironic since supposedly I’ve lost hearing in the higher frequencies which is why I have high-frequency tinnitus in that ear. When something triggers it, I feel a fluttering in that ear and then if it continues the ear will start crackling and popping. It’s not painful, per se, but very uncomfortable and it’s not something I want to experience day in and day out. It has limited my ability to work, even from home, as talking on the phone is quite often a trigger. It sucks. But anyway…
I kept thinking about Olive all week and looking at her pictures. I really liked how friendly and cuddly she was which is what I’d like in our next dog. I found out she would be at the next adoption event in Tinley Park on the 13th so we went out to see her again. We also took a look at the other dogs up for adoption through other rescues but they were all big breeds and we definitely want a small non-shedding dog.
So anyway, she was there and as cute and friendly as ever. I explained to her foster my interest and how before heading out to the event I had filled out an application just in case, but I was hesitant due to my ear condition. It should be noted at this point I’d heard her bark but within the confines of the pet store at the first event, and outside at the second one, and nothing was triggered in my ear. I thought maybe I was worrying for nothing.
That being said, I asked the foster if they would consider letting us foster her to see if her bark would bother me and she said they don’t transfer dogs from one foster to another. I was disappointed, but understood. In fact, we were getting ready to leave when the woman in charge of the rescue came by and recognized us. She thought it was a great sign we were back and was excited thinking we were going to adopt. I explained my ear condition and she offered us the ability to take her for a week to see how she’d work out. She explained she rarely did such a thing, but had a good feeling about us. She asked me to fill out their foster application (I had filled out an adoption one previously), which I did on my phone.
May Recap
May wasn’t a good month since it began with us losing Wookie.
We kept busy by visiting a lot of forest preserves since spring migration was happening and we didn’t want to sit around at home moping. We even went on a guided bird walk one morning which was nice. It was the most socialization with strangers we’ve had in a long time. And I did see, and photograph, some new to me birds which was nice.
The month included lots of visits to the arboretum too. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten as much value out of our membership as we have since signing back up (after a few years reprieve) in September. We even went there immediately after saying goodbye to Wookie since we couldn’t bear the thought of coming home to an empty house. So it’s become our peaceful retreat. I wish it was a bit closer to home, though.
We also worked on making our patio area look nice. With everything going on with Wookie the zinnias I had started growing inside in April didn’t take when I haphazardly planted them outside, so we bought some dwarf zinnias and other flowers at a gardening club sale, and additional zinnas, misc flowers, and tomato plants from a local farm. We also got some cute fencing and new solar lights from Walmart, so the patio is really coming along.
It’s too bad the new landscapers our association hired suck. They’ve been in the area twice and have overlooked trimming our bush and a neighbor’s bushes both times even though they’ve done everyone else’s in the vicinity. I can tell they have far fewer workers than the last company so I think they took on a larger project than they can reasonably handle. One week they cut 1/4th of our backyard and didn’t do the rest until the following week. They can’t seem to focus on making one entire area look good before moving onto the next, so there are areas that are only halfway landscaped. It’s really aggravating!
In other news, my ability to concentrate on tv shows, movies, and books has been awful the past few months. We’ve hardly watched anything new and have been sticking to re-watching shows like Mom and The Big Bang Theory. I had to lower my book reading challenge on Goodreads from 52 to 24 since I was falling way behind. I’ve only read 14 books this year, most of which were read prior to April. I’ve lost count of how many books I’ve started and given up on since then. Nothing can hold my attention.
It’s ironic that I have more free time than ever but am not utilizing it, at least on the entertainment front. I have been working on decluttering the house, donating unused items, and performing a digital decluttering of my computer (and digital storage spaces like Dropbox and Google Drive). The latter was spurred by me needing to make sure I had every single photo and video of Wookie backed up in several places, which required me to find them all and merge them first. I’m still not entirely done (I still need to compare what’s on my phone to what I have backed up to make sure I didn’t miss anything), but things are much more organized now.
One thing I’ve remained consistent with is exercise. I walk 30-60 minutes daily, some of that on the treadmill and the rest either at a park, forest preserve, or around the neighborhood in the evenings. I think it’s helped keep me from having a complete breakdown. Between losing Wookie and dwelling on how disappointed I am in the lack of closeness with most of my family members (and trust me, I’ve tried, but I can’t make people give a crap about me so I’ve stopped making the effort), I’ve been feeling really down.
Saying Goodbye To Wookie
There won’t be an April recap post because nothing worth talking about happened that month except Wookie’s health declining.
By the beginning of May she had stopped eating. Her regular vet gave us anti-nausea meds and an appetite stimulant which we tried all weekend without any improvements. On Sunday evening, May 5th, she started having diarrhea which looked like blood, so we rushed her to the ER vet. Not her specialist one, but a different place which lets people stay with their pets in a private room because there was no way in hell I was leaving her alone.
After multiple tests it was determined that she was in kidney failure. They put her on IV fluids and I stayed with her overnight but her numbers didn’t improve. Despite everything they tried she still wouldn’t eat either. Plus she started trembling and was very lethargic. I had multiple conversations with our vet that Monday morning and it was determined her kidneys had just had enough. I knew her kidneys could go from slowly declining to outright failure, but it was still hard to come to terms with.
It was heartbreaking, to say the least, but we made the decision to give her pain meds, bring her home for one last night with us, and say goodbye to her in the morning at her regular vet. (I am having a hard time writing out the word that starts with E, but you get the drift).
Joe and I are devastated. We’ve lost pets before (fish, hamsters, rats), but nothing compares to this. She was our baby, part of our little family, and now she’s just gone. The house feels so lifeless and empty without her here. I feel very lost right now and have been trying to keep myself busy so I don’t wallow in sadness. I cannot believe it’s been three weeks since she passed. On one hand it feels so much longer and on the other it’s like she was just here yesterday. It’s hard to cope knowing I can never kiss her forehead again or cuddle her against her will (she loved being near us but was not a cuddler). It’s just surreal.