The best Christmas present I received was from my 20 year old step son – your book. I kept putting off buying it for myself because I was supposed to be buying Christmas gifts.

My husband and I had two 9 year old Pomeranians, Bailey (an orange) and Dixie (black/white parti) and an 8 year old Bichon, Prissy. We had a happy little family including my elderly Mom & Dad who lived across the street with their 3 year old poodle, Pixie. In Sep 2007 Mom and Dad had to move to an retirement apartment. I agreed to take Pixie, so then I had 4 fur kids.

Daddy has Alzheimer’s and was having trouble adjusting to the new living arrangements. Three weeks later, Mom was starting to have health issues including a hospital stay. We all decided that it was time for them to go live with my sister in Minnesota since she doesn’t work outside the home and she has space for them up there. So within just a few days, Mom got out of the hospital and we packed them up to move.

The day they left for Minnesota, Daddy was having a bad day. We finally got him in the car and off they went. I was very upset because they’d always lived at most an hour away from me and I knew I would miss them terribly.

Sixteen hours after they left came the most devastating event of my 46 year old life. In the middle of the night my husband got out of bed and fell. Somehow in the process, Bailey’s tiny little head was crushed up against the iron foot of the bench we had at the end of the bed. It was a horrible, horrible freak accident.

I scooped Bailey up and held her tight against my chest as we sped off to the ER. She was so tiny and there was so much blood. I think she slipped away shortly after we got in the car. She was DOA at the ER.

I was just devastated and sobbed everyday for 5 weeks. It’s coming up on 14 weeks now and I still cry some.

Bailey was so smart and obedient. We had on occasion taken her to a home improvement store and let her walk off leash behind us. She never wandered. Just looked around and stayed with us. She was quite the little lady except when it came to her favorite ball. She was a ferocious ball player! It was hysterical watching this tiny little 6 lb pup run and growl so viciously at her ball. She was alpha and she kept everyone in line. I love my other dogs and they help to comfort me, but I still miss my Bailey Bea.

What woke my husband up was a call to his cell phone – a wrong number. Because someone wasn’t careful enough to dial the correct number in the middle of the night…my beloved Bailey had to die! But then at least 4 other elements also had to line up for it to have happen. I finally concluded that as horrible as the accident was for my husband and me, it must have been a blessing for Bailey to keep her from suffering later in life. She was already starting to have increasingly frequent problems with her collapsing trachea, a painful knee and losing her hearing.

I had no idea how bad it would be to lose my little girl. I feared that because I was greiving so hard that something might be wrong with me, I sat down and read your book in a few hours staight. 26 tissues later, I realized I’m not alone and I felt better (except for my puffy, dried out eyes.) I am so sorry for what you guys have been through.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. What a blessing!

Vickie from TX