Raising 4 Monkeys: January 2011

On January 20, 2011, my precious dog, Edward, went to doggy heaven. He was approximately 9 years old...we don't really know his birthdate because he came from the SPCA but we always celebrate his birthday in February since that's when we adopted him. When we adopted Edward, we noticed that he had a huge knot on top of his head, a weird looking mole on the side of his leg, and one of his "toes" was swollen. He was sent home with antibiotics that we were never told what they were for. When we asked the day that we looked at him, we were told "Oh he's an adoptee, we really don't know where the bumps came from". After we adopted him, we were told that Edward did have a brain tumor. We chose to take him home anyways...he was ours and he chose us. Had we not adopted him, he more than likely would have been put down because he was an older dog, had some medical things going on, and he was huge...like small pony huge. We were able to give him 2 more years of life.
When we adopted him, Eli was only 6 months old. Eli and Edward fell in love with each other...I still remember Eli learning to crawl and Edward would just lay in the floor and let Eli crawl all over him, pull his fur, play with his ears, and Edward never cried, whimpered, growled, or even got mad. He just layed there and became Eli's big ole' play toy.
The one time that we had a peeping tom, Edward corralled the kids and I up in the living room and would not allow any of us to go in to my bedroom until Greg got home from work. He stood in front of my bedroom door and would not move. When we tucked Chloe in at night and read her story, Edward would come in to her room and lay beside her bed until she fell asleep. He ended up being read too also. Noah and Edward loved each other too but Noah isn't really a dog person!
It's times like those that I am thankful for...Edward was an amazing dog. I am sitting here thinking "maybe, I could have petted him a little more, let him in the house a little more, played with him more often"...but after talking to my grandma, we gave Edward 2 more years of happiness that he wouldn't have gotten had we not adopted him. My children gave him back his spunk and allowed him to be playful and run and play with them. He gave my kids a love for animals and responsibility.
Those last few days were hard...He quit eating about 3-4 days before he passed. We thought he was going to leave us on the 18th, but he didn't. He had 1 big nonstop seizure from the 18th until midnight on the 20th. He was already gone mentally on the 18th. We wrapped him up so he stayed warm and Snickers stayed by his side until he went. She signaled to us on midnight of the 20th that he was gone.
Snickers is taking it harder than the rest of us. She had been Edward's playmate since she was 3 months old. They shared a doggy love like no other. She loved him. She is becoming a house dog again...and I think that she likes it. We have contemplated getting her another playmate but we are just unsure right now, especially with Greg going on deployment soon.

Edward~ We'll miss you old boy...we will never forget you.