The Sparrow household is a very sad place right now. I hadn’t even had time yet to post about our two new family members, Tilly and Dash. We recently purchased these two perfect, beautiful, playful pups…and quickly fell in love with them both. We originally wanted to just get one pup but, once we had the opportunity to play with the whole litter, instantly knew we had to keep at least two of them together. Watching them play together, and with the kids…we knew we made the right choice in getting them both. They were so precious cuddling up and sleeping together too…simply precious.
Tilly is the baby girl, the girls picked her out and named her after themselves. Tilly means “Little Warrior” in French (Devaney’s currently studying French culture), and they combined their middle names, LaVette and Antonia, to arrive at a full name…Tilly LaTonia Sparrow, lol. Dash is my oldest son’s pick. He went back and forth between a few names. We tried to discourage the name Dash (too “Incredibles”) but that’s what he wanted, and the baby boy puppy quickly lived up to his name…incredible.
Sadly, Dash began to have health complications, seizures that would stop his breathing…eventually he was having them every twelve minutes. His breathing was labored. He was suffering so much. I rushed him to the hospital, they did some initial testing…nothing out of the ordinary there. He was still trying so hard to just be a puppy. He would, very weakly, still wag his tail (between episodes) and respond so lovingly to my affection as I tried to comfort him. Finally, the doctor came back out. She said they could run more tests, accrue more costs, looking for an answer but…that answer would most likely be something little Dash wouldn’t be able to live with anyway.
My husband was at work…my older children were at school…Tilly and my baby boys were at the hospital with me…and I stood there trying to dry up these tears that were flowing uncontrollably, as not to alarm my very smart three year old. I had an angel with me…a woman that I had never met before. She saw me struggling with my three and one year old sons, and two puppies…one of them so sick. I thank God for sending her to me in that moment of time…I surely needed her. We didn’t exchange contact info…I hope we cross paths again someday.
With this Angel sitting on the bench behind me, holding Tilly and keeping D’Lo engaged in puppy conversation…and with a now-sleeping Adarius in my arms…I gave the go ahead to give Dash the relief I should have been brave enough to give him an hour earlier. I’m so sorry, Dash. I love you already. I was able to kiss him and hold him…and say goodbye. D’Lo came in to kiss him too, although he didn’t know they were goodbye kisses. Again, my tears began flowing from my already swollen eyes. I dried them quickly before I turned to hug my son.
The remainder of the evening involved the numerous tears and loud sobbing of my very sad daughters…and the stoic, yet obvious painful, attempts of my fifteen year old son to not cry in front of anyone…this was, after-all, his puppy that was no longer with us. He spent the rest of the night in the privacy of his own room, crying in solace…I’m so sorry, son…I love you.
Tilly spent the night crying as well. We ended up bringing her into our bed…so that she had someone to cuddle with. Neither of us got much sleep…tending to her loss. We just started talking about adopting another companion for her…not to replace Dash, but to bring her out of her loneliness. I would appreciate suggestions and/or opinions on the matter. In the meantime, I would appreciate your prayers even more…
