Mason Madness: So hard to say goodbye

I had been waiting to do this post because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be crying the entire time I was typing. Then morning sickness got in the way :-(
On Oct. 10th our sweet bull dog Sassy passed away.
I freely admit that I am not a huge dog lover. Not that I have anything against dogs and I don't dislike them, I'm just not the type of person that gives their dog kisses, takes them to the park daily, spoils them rotten, etc... I can say however with 100% certainty though that I would NEVER want anything bad to happen to any animal and Sassy was loved and will be missed dearly.
And so the story goes....
Thad and I hadn't even been married two months when he came home with the cutest puppy I'd ever seen. As cute as she was, I was still STEAMING mad at my husband for buying a dog. A month before he had taken in a dog our neighbor no longer wanted (1/2 lab, 1/2 dalmatian) and she had reeked so much dang havoc on my yard and life that I definitely didn't want another one. Not only that but he had paid some major $$$$ for the dog without telling me about it :-(
I was such a sucker though for her beautiful blue eyes and adorable scrunched up face. She was pure bred and all her lineage had royal sounding names so we put quite a bit of thought into what we were going to name her. I decided her name would be "Her Royal Sassiness" and we'd call her Sassy for short. It fit her perfectly!!!! When she was a puppy I let her stay in the house but once she got bigger she was sent packing (too the backyard) :-) If she was really good I'd let her come in and sit on a bean bag so she could be with the family. I have a STRONG aversion to dog hair all over my furniture and house.

A few months after getting Sassy, our other dog ran away so we were left with just one big ball of energy. And boy did she ever have energy. Thad's brother Jeff came over one day while we were both at work to put chlorine in the pool for us. While he was there Sassy chased him around the pool and made him drop his phone in the pool, which is his excuse for leaving our back door wide open. I didn't hear this story until months after it happened. Thad said that when he got home from work and walked in the door he thought we had been robbed. The entire house had been torn apart with drawers pulled out, cupboards opened, paper torn up everywhere. Then he saw Sassy coming out of our room and put two and two together. He said that I called him shortly after that to tell him I was on my way home and he went into panic mode. He was deathly afraid of what would happen if I came home and saw the house in that condition. He's never cleaned so fast in his entire life. I did notice that the knobs on my coffee table looked as if they had been chewed. Thad quickly dismissed that idea and told me I was imagining things. If Thad's dad hadn't spilled the beans one day I probably would have never been told what happened :-)
From the moment Jacey was born she just couldn't get enough of that "doggy". Sassy was her best friend. Thad was even worse. For the first several years he took her with him everywhere. She just kept getting bigger and fatter. I told him on hundreds of occasions "You treat that dang dog better than you treat your wife." It's me or the dog, choose!!!! Unfortunately he'd always say "Okay, I choose the dog". I know, not very nice, but that's Thad for you :-)

About 8 or 9 months ago I noticed that Sassy wasn't so fat anymore. She was losing weight rapidly. After much coercion Thad finally agreed to take her to the vet. Unfortunately he's the type of person that doesn't ever think anything is wrong. Sadly for us, he was mistaken. We found out Sassy was in the worst possible stages of valley fever. I never realized how much I would miss her until I thought we were going to lose her. Thankfully she hadn't yet developed seizures which is the fatal symptom of valley fever. We immediately put her on medication and within a few weeks she was gaining her weight back and seemed to be back to her old self. That is until a few weeks ago when I noticed she was loosing weight again and would just lie around all day rather than running around the yard barking. Our fears were confirmed when we took her back to the vet and were told the valley fever had come back with full force and that she was also starting to have mild seizures. The rest is history :-(

The day before we put her "to sleep" Jacey went out back to hug her and pet her and tell her goodbye. She still doesn't quite understand and she still says something about it on a daily basis. I know it will take time and it will eventually begin to hurt a little less but for now as Jacey would say "I miss my Sassy dog!!!"

Baby Sassy