We lost our German Shepherd in February to a cancerous heart tumor-yesterday would have been his seventh birthday – We have his full brother Carter and that made it an even sadder day.. I cannot believe the loss I felt and still feel. I actually felt guilty because I didn’t feel as terrible losing some of our human friends until I read Losing Sprite- thank you so much for this book. The day before Connor died we were out with our horses and our mare saw something out in one of our pastures- we looked and could see that it was an animal just lying in the snow, thinking it was just stuck my husband waded out to where it was and could see that it was a young dog and that she was not stuck in the snow but didn’t seem to want to move. He brought her in on a sled and when we got her in where it was warm and dry we could tell that she was injured and couldn’t walk but could scoot. We examined her and could see that her front leg was broken. We made her comfortable for the night. Connor looked at her and sniffed her and then went and settled down for the night. I had prayed that I wouldn’t have to make the decision to end Connor’s suffering and the time would come when I would know. the next morning Connor came to me and licked both sides of my face and then went and laid down. I knew that things weren’t quite the same as they had been but he did choose to go outside with my husband to do chores and then the next thing I knew Connor had lain down in the snow- we got him a blanket and he went to that and laid down and was gone. the next day was a trip to town to have Connor cremated and to take this pup to our vet. I had named her Annie as in Little Orphan Annie.
We waited all day for all the tests and X-rays – Annie not only had a broken front leg but a fractured pelvis and rib injuries – and a strong will to live- her injuries weren’t new injuries but had already begun healing- which meant that she had been left to die in an empty snowy, freezing environment. We left her with our vet to keep her quiet made plans for her surgeries. Annie’s front leg is presently held together by rods and the inside that screw to rods on the outside. Eventually the outside ones will be removed and she’ll have the ones attched on the inside. We have four more weeks of healing and each day brings more joy and challenges because she doesn’t like her Elizabethen collar and has figured out how to remove it so we take a lot of trips to town to replace bandages. Her ribs and pelvis have healed on their own once she could support her front leg. She’s our Angel Annie and everything seems to have happened for a reason.
My husband underwent an emergency surgery and had a stent put in for a major coronary blockage during this same time- he had no symtoms just extra special doctors! so our life has beehn blessed by Annie and Connor and Carter and all of their friends.

Joyce from WA