Less than three months apart, 85 days to be exact, we have had to say good-bye to both of our beagle babies, Lucky in March and Charlie just a few days ago.
In reflecting back over our years with them in our lives we have so many funny, sweet, and silly stories that make us smile and those smiles are what we are trying to focus on at this particular time.
These two beagles came into our lives early on in our relationship. RA and I had been dating for just less than a year when we found Charlie on The Haven's website. One look at those big brown eyes and those long beagle ears and we were hooked.
When we rescued Charlie he had already had five different owners, a few of whom didn't take the best care of him, in his five year life. But on that sunny April morning in Fairhope, Charles Denson Brown joined our family. Charlie was king of the castle. He was a spry, yet incredibly overweight (45 lbs., I think…) peg-legged (he was run over by a car as a puppy and instead of amputating his leg it was fused at the knee, so he was unable to bend it) beagle who didn't let anything or anyone slow him down. He climbed stairs, loved walks and car-rides and was happy to be the center of our attention.
But a few days after we got him home we realized that while we were away at work and school he was very lonely. He would howl at the top of his lungs. A trip to our vet led us to realize that Charlie had separation anxiety. He had never been the only dog in a household and he wanted a friend…
Enter Lucky.
Out vet just so happened to have a female beagle, whom they had named Lucky, that had been dropped off after Hurricane Katrina. The person who dropped her off said that she was found roaming the streets of New Orleans after the storm (meaning she was in New Orleans during the storm). Our vet suggested that Charlie and Lucky meet to see how they responded to one another.
Brother/Sister love at first sight.
So, on that warm May afternoon in Daphne, just one month after we adopted Charlie, Lucky Katrina Brown joined our family.
These two beagles we no where near blood relatives, but you wouldn't ever have known. They loved each other so much. They were two peas in a pod. Truly.
Brother and sister...
They would look at each other as though to say, "You get up. No, you get up. No, I said YOU get up - I was laying here first."
She LOVED her daddy…
Celebrating his tenth birthday at Nana's house…
Snuggled up napping. This beagle LOVED to nap…
Sticking his head in the doggie door. He liked to do this to let us know that he was ready to come inside and that we could now open the door for him. Spoiled-rotten.
Guarding his territory on the front porch…
She loved to bury herself under blankets - even in the summer.
See, she loved to make herself a little nest…
Co-pilot on road trips…
Her favorite position to lay in on her couch…
But then, in May 2013 we found out that Lucky had bladder stones and unfortunately, in October of 2013 she was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Our vet told us it could be six months, it could be two years, there was no way to know how quickly things would progress. And so we began a drug regimen to try and slow the progression as much as possible and give her the best quality of life possible. We spoiled her. Big time.
But by February 2015 we knew things were getting worse and on March 21, after some additional symptoms arose that indicated that her quality of life was waning, we had to make the difficult decision to put her down. She was too good of a dog and we loved her entirely too much to let her suffer.
Charlie took Lucky's passing pretty hard. He missed his sister, his friend.
Also in February 2015 an x-ray of Charlie showed a mass in his abdomen. It could be a tumor of some sort, possibly cancerous, but surgery was the only way to know for sure and we didn't think Charlie, in his advancing age/health would be able to handle it. So, again a few prescriptions to get our oldest four-legged baby boy back to himself worked fairly well for a few weeks. But he would go through days/weeks where he just wasn't himself.
Last Thursday, we took a walk as a family and before we made it to the end of our street, maybe 150 yards, Charlie laid down in the grass and couldn't go any further. RA got our wagon and plopped Charlie, and RF, in it to take him on what I think I knew would be his last walk. On Saturday, while the boys and I were in Mississippi, RA called and asked me to come home - Charlie was not well at all - refusing food, water, vomiting and unable to stand up to go outside to use the bathroom.
Mr. Joe and Mrs. Margie were kind enough to meet me in Montgomery Sunday morning to take the boys for a few days while RA and I work on some house projects to get us closer to moving. I made it back to Mobile about 1:30 and two hours later, just as he came into our lives, Charlie stretched one last time and took one last big breath, with RA and I watching over him.
Having to make the decision to put Lucky down was a very difficult thing to do and now loosing Charlie less than three months later, we are beyond sad. Those two were our first "kids". And they loved RF and JE so much, not to mention how much RF and JE loved them.
When Lucky died I noted the quote below on my FB page and it rings so true.
"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard." Winnie the Pooh
And I found this one earlier today and it rings just as true.
"Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened." Anatole France
We are better people because we had the opportunity to have them in our lives. Their unconditional love and their infectious happiness (they were beagles after all --- happy all the time) made them both the best of companions.
Rest well, Charlie and Lucky. And thank you for all the love and the slobbery beagle kisses.
Lucky Katrina Brown
Charles Denson Brown
The best of friends...
