Where do I begin? The first dog I ever owned passed away in September of 2010. After a long and happy 17 years it was time to say goodbye. Losing my first dog was terrible and I never wanted another dog after that. But that state of mind didn’t last very long because my then girlfriend and now wife convinced me of what I already knew, the house felt empty and getting another dog was the only thing that could fill the void. It wasn’t a replacement, but another chance to have a constant source of love and happiness in our lives other than each other.
When we went to the Downey shelter to take a peek at the dogs that were available, we found a place filled with sadness but yet so many amazing dogs with no home that were on death row. As we were walking through we came up to a kennel with 4 dogs. My wife immediately said “that’s the one I want!” This little tiny black furball bouncing over all the other dogs for attention. With so much life and excitement, she was a great pick. In the same kennel I noticed a shy little scraggly white dog in the corner and I said “that’s the one were getting!” Neither one of wanted to budge on deciding which one to get, so we took them both. Probably the best decision we ever made. We named the our little black dog Baxter and the white one Bentley. Baxter in all her glory was the baby of the two and loved being held and coddled while Bentley was very independent and didn’t like being picked up too much. Baxter seemed to get annoyed by the most random of things but I think the most random was her hate for the Good Year blimp flying past the house. I could only imagine what was going through her mind as she spent her days barking away at the blimp hovering by. Fast forward to end of 2013 and we get another dog who we rescued that suffered from a spinal injury and we thought he would never walk again. We put him through water therapy and acupuncture and after about 6 months our Dachshund Smokey started to walk again. It’s not a perfect strut, more like a drunken stumble, but walking nonetheless so we are happy and so is Smokey. We were all happy until mid-2014 when what we thought was a small bug bite on Baxter was in reality a stage 3 Mast Cell Tumor. Not realizing what that meant we started researching and found out dogs have a very small chance at survival passed the 6 month mark with these tumors at this stage. My wife and I were so heartbroken that our baby so young and full of life could get cheated out it like this. She went through surgery to remove the tumor but unfortunately it had spread into one of her lymph nodes and two weeks after her first surgery she was back in to get her lymph node removed. It kept getting worse spreading through her body at which point we couldn’t bare to put her through any more pain. We considered chemo therapy but the oncologist advised against it and said we should let her spend the rest life as comfortable as possible. Trying to do everything we could we found out about medical marijuana and using it to fight cancer cells. We tried this hoping for a miracle but in the end cancer won the hard fought battle. And while it didn’t slow or eliminate her cancer, it did ease some pain and discomfort and helped her relax.
Baxter passed in our home in my wife’s arms on December 13, 2014 in her favorite spot of the whole house. My wife cradled her all night while I was away for work and Baxter waited until I got home to pass. It’s been 3 months since our little pup Baxter has not been with us, and while we still have two other great dogs, Baxter’s personality is greatly missed every day. Our home feels a little emptier and quieter without her running around, and the Blimp buzzing by will never be the same without her.
We took some family photos with our three pups before it was too late and I am so glad we did. The struggle of losing a pet is very difficult and I never thought I would have had to deal with it so soon with little Baxter. Her memories are still with us and these beautiful pictures of her surround our home. We miss her more than we can handle sometimes, but it’s nice to look up and see her pretty little face staring back at us. Below are some of the photos taken by me and my talented business partner Barry Hackett.
Rest in peace, Baxter. We will see you on the other side.
