Page 46 of 53 FirstFirst ... 364445464748 ... LastLast
Results 451 to 460 of 524

Thread: Holidays can be hard...

  1. #451
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Colorado Springs,Co
    Posts
    231

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    Aa we come to the close of Halloween, I hope you all had a nice day and fun evening. Our weather was cloudy, a bit windy and chilly, but for the last day of October it wasn't bad at all. The trees are just beautiful...
    Ginger would have loved today, with a capital "L"
    Perfect weather for her.. and plenty of leaves to rustle through. Missed her being here so very much. She added so much joy to every day! There were about 30 Trick or Treaters tonight.. cute costumes.. I know she would have enjoyed each one, " especially with the scent of chocolate in the air and possibly on their hands!"
    She has changed me.. with her life, and more so with her passing... there is not another piece of this puzzle we call life that will ever correctly fit that missing void again.

  2. #452
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Georgia
    Posts
    15,292

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    And now it is the morning after…I confess to feeling a bit let down because I do love Halloween so much, and now there’ll be another whole year to wait! My most important report is that Luna did get to wear the orange collar. She wasn’t able to greet any kids at the door because we decided to stick with setting up a card table with help-yourself treat baggies out on the lawn. After three chilly days of rain, yesterday was finally dry. Still chilly and breezy, but that made it feel genuinely like fall. We had about forty kids come by, and they all seemed to be having a great time as we waved and called out to them. And hubby and I admired Luna’s collar inside the house all evening. We told her how special and pretty she was. Many, many times. She continues to grow weaker, and eats less and less. But we were able to share one more Halloween with her and that was a huge gift. As you say, Colleen, everything will be different at some point in the future. So yesterday was a massive gift indeed.

    It turned out to be a relatively early night of trick or treating, I think because so many families here in Atlanta wanted to tune into the World Series. We were all hoping for the final victory here last night, but alas it was not to be. Maybe tomorrow. We’ll see. Anyway, now it’s back to the mundane chores of the day. But we got our special evening with the orange collar, and that’ll stay in the memory book forever.

  3. #453
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Colorado Springs,Co
    Posts
    231

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    I am so thankfully Luna got to wear her orange collar once again! Definitely a memory that will last a lifetime. How old is Luna? Bless her heart. I have been keeping her, and you and yours in my prayers daily.
    Sending love and hugs.

  4. #454
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Colorado Springs,Co
    Posts
    231

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    8 long months, 35 weeks since we said goodbye to our sweet, sweet Ginger. The last 3 or 4 days have been extremely difficult. Sometimes we never know why and I am trying to learn that that is ok. I came across this quote and it helped ease it a little, yet the pool of tears are still resting just behind my eyelids.
    "It's ok if you thought you were over it, but it hits you all over again. It's ok to fall apart even if you thought you had it all under control. You are not weak. Healing is messy. And there's no timeline for healing."
    Hope this brings some help to others.
    Be blessed.

  5. #455
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Georgia
    Posts
    15,292

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    Colleen, thank you so much for sharing that quote. I think it’s so wise and so true. As time passes , I think it can be hard, sometimes, for us to give *ourselves* permission to continue to grieve. I don’t think our culture is very supportive in that way. Especially with pets, so many people expect you to “get over it” and move on. What they don’t understand is that you don’t ever get over it. You just have to find a way to live with it, and forever some days will be much harder than others.

    This has been a hard week for our family in a lot of ways. Two days after Halloween, our Joan lost her dear big boy Gable after he suddenly fell ill on Halloween night. She has a thread about him on our “Everything Else” forum. Gable has been aging alongside my Luna, and Joan and I have been comparing lots of notes during these past few months. Losing Gable has been a very sad shock for me, too, as though Luna has lost her brother from across the miles. And as it turns out, Luna is continuing her down-slide this week, too. She turned 13 in August, and is now the longest-lived of the three Labs my husband and I have been blessed with. We’re so very lucky she’s had a normal lifespan, but we know the end is in sight. She’s weaker and stumbling a lot more this week, and basically stopped eating and drinking again for a couple of days. I talked at length with our vet on Thursday, and as anybody who has ever owned a Lab knows, inappetance is a very bad sign. But at this point we’re done with diagnostics. We’re just keeping her comfortable here at home, and she still does seem comfortable and “herself.” He prescribed a daily appetite stimulant for her and that really seemed to help over the weekend. But my heart sank this morning when she once again turned her head away from the breakfast I offered her. At this point, I never know what any given day will bring, just like with Gable. But our vet has raised all our dogs right alongside us, he knows where things stand, and he reassured me that he’ll be there for us whenever we think the time has come. One day or one month or more, I do not know. We just keep loving on her every minute we can.

    When Gable passed away, I was looking for some words of comfort to share, too. I couldn’t find the quote I was hunting for, but I did find this quote that I added to Gable’s thread. I think I’ll add it here, too, because it really touches my heart. It’s a quote from Winnie the Pooh, and it’s underneath a picture of Pooh holding Piglet’s hand:

    How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
    As I said to Joan, “lucky” is not a word I’d have thought of right now for any of us who are struggling. But gosh, it really is true at least for me. I’m so lucky to have had all my doggies share their lives with me, and that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself. Maybe that’ll help balance the pain a tiny bit. Probably not really, but I’m hoping I can try…

  6. #456
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Glen Cove, NY
    Posts
    1,941

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    Here is a quote from a plaque my sister gave me the Xmas after Lena died. Josh was here with me yesterday and we were trying to remember what it said. I have been in a fog all week and just couldn't get it right even though I have read it almost every day for the last five years. I had taken it down to decorate for Halloween and couldn't remember where I put it, but I found it this morning. I don't know who wrote it, it says anonymous. Maybe it will help all of us...


    It came to me that every time I lose a dog
    they take a piece of my heart with them,
    and every new dog who comes into my life
    gifts me with a piece of their heart.

    If I live long enough
    all the components of my heart will be dog,
    and I will become as generous and loving as they are.
    Last edited by Joan2517; 11-08-2021 at 09:52 AM. Reason: word
    Joan, mom to my Angel Lena, Angel Gable, Angel Phoenix, Angel Doree, Cooper, Sibble, and now Raina.

  7. #457
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Colorado Springs,Co
    Posts
    231

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    Thank you both so much!! Both quotes ring so true...
    I am very thankful for every day of the 16 years, 1 month, 7 days we shared with our Ginger.( she was 5 months old when we got her.). Yes, to love so much it makes goodbye so hard, we are lucky, fortunate and blessed.. I so want to have a heart like Gingers
    There will be days I will think of this. Perhaps not today.. but eventually.. sending much love and hugs to both of you..

  8. #458
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Colorado Springs,Co
    Posts
    231

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    Starting to feel a little more anxious with Thanksgiving coming up. Trying to keep my focus on all the Thanksgivings we got to share with Ginger, but it's hard sometimes. She loved it so. She was always right there in the kitchen laying, waiting patiently for the Turkey to get done. Beautiful brown eyes glistening with anticipation.. now mine glisten with tears....

  9. #459
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Georgia
    Posts
    15,292

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    The memories of our beloved traditions are such a mixed bag, aren’t they, or at least they are for me. In some ways my memories keep my angels always close to my heart. In other ways, they only widen the gulf between my emptier life today and joyful times in the past.

    My mom would have been 102 today. We lost her almost three years ago, and I miss her every day but especially so again today. I should be planning her birthday celebration and looking ahead to baking together next week. I treasure the memories, but it does hurt so much that memories are all I have left of our lives together.

    Fingers crossed we’ll be leaving for Tennessee on Tuesday to spend Thanksgiving with my brother’s family. This is our first trip since COVID began, and the first time seeing them all in person instead of Zoom! The last two Thanksgivings without my mom were probably my two hardest days ever without her, so I’m holding out hope for a better time this year. Of course Luna is the wild card. I’m praying she stays stable enough for the trip to go OK. We’ll be staying in a hotel, and we’ll be leaving her all quiet and cozy in her big travel crate while we’re spending time with family. She loves her crate and never barks, so that’s all good. But will she eat? I sure hope so. The appetite stimulant seems to be helping, thank goodness. And yesterday morning, she seemed the best overall that she’d been for a while. I felt so hopeful for the week ahead. And then, she started shaking her ears and when I checked them I found *fleas* on them! FLEAS!! And yes, more fleas everywhere!!! OMG.

    In thirty years with dogs, we’d never before seen a single flea. Not one. So I’d quit with flea preventative a few years back — one less thing to cause any side effects, I’d thought. And now my poor baby who hardly even steps foot outside is being bitten by fleas, and probably has been for a while. OMG. What a horrible mother I am. I can’t imagine how she got them. Although now she is so feeble that when she does go out on the front lawn to do her chores, she sometimes lies down on the grass for a minute or two. So that must be it. Anyway, I rushed to the vet and gave her the edible that kills all the living fleas in a few hours and I’ve vacuumed twice already and scalded all her blankets and towels in hot water and the dryer. *Anything* that’s to go on the trip with us will be thoroughly washed and segregated. I surely don’t want to take a single egg up there to pass on to anyone else! And thankfully she ate a decent breakfast this morning so the pill must not have upset her stomach. But seriously. Did I need fleas? No I did not. But at least I found them yesterday instead of Tuesday morning, so there *is* that…

    Anyway, that’s where things stand in our house for today. I’ll be busying myself with more cleaning chores today and lighting a candle for my mom tonight. And looking ahead to next week when a new and hopefully joyful Thanksgiving memory will be made. I’m so ready to let others do the cooking this year since it’s so sad for me not to be cooking with my mom. But mainly I’m so ready to be spending time with family once again. It’ll be a very small group, but still I am sooooooo ready for that. It feels like it’s been forever…

  10. #460
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Colorado Springs,Co
    Posts
    231

    Default Re: Holidays can be hard...

    I am sending you lots of hugs today and wish your mom a Happy Birthday in Heaven! The first few Birthday's of my dads after he passed were terrible! Just heart wrenching. The holidays were extremely difficult also! I understand so very much.. daddy was my music buddy, my idol, my Hero!
    Now with Ginger gone... it will be 2 empty places this holiday season.. I cherish all of the memories they each hold.. But I know and expect and accept that these will be difficult without our little girl.
    The fleas... yuck, yuck, yuck,... I am sorry about that, but glad you found them before your trip. I am praying Luna does well. I am thankful she is eating.. I pray for safe travels and a truly wonderful Thanksgiving for you and yours!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •