Hello...it's Caturday.
I'm Benny05, your guest host and glad to be filling in for
who will be back soon.
Groundrule: play nice in this sandbox. If you are not a fan of this series, please comment in the nearest Open Thread.
This edition of the pootie series I am dedicating to our friends who went to Rainbow Bridge. A good reason: Mr. Benny and I saw our woozle, Sydney go to that resting place on Thursday morning. And I'm here to be with others who have lost their loved ones. It's hard to lose a family member.
Sydney: a beautiful woozle. She was 13 and nearly a half years old, born to a great litter of Aussie Shepherds in Colorado Springs, CO. I was not around when she came into Mr. Benny's life as Mr. Benny was married then to a really nice woman who was dying from breast cancer (an irony as this is breast cancer awareness month). Incidentally, Colorado Springs is where I was conceived, so I have some kinship with Sydney.
Syd (as we called her) was the life of the party. Mr. Benny told me that because of Syd's white face for her breed, she was expected to have poor or no hearing, thus be dumb. But the experts were wrong: she was so smart and her hearing was superior.
Sydney was a great complement to her litter mate, Mattie, who went to Rainbow Bridge exactly 50 weeks before her sister. Mattie was a faster runner, but Syd was more observant about her surroundings. She could retrieve a tennis ball or woozle toy better.
Syd was very devoted to Mr. Benny. As he is unemployed but still actively seeking a good position these days, it was a blessing that Mr. Benny had more time to spend with her. But the family member who is really missing Syd the most is Benson, our younger cat.
He was great friends with Syd as Benson got and still gets along with anyone. I'm hoping when his time comes (and I hope that will be a very long time ahead) he gets to reunite with his woozle sisters, especially Syd.
I hope you will indulge me as I tell about Syd's last moments. Sort of, I chronicled them on my blog, Benny's World, but I can repeat here.
At 2am on Thursday, I awoke to cool temps in the house and no lights. I went throughout the house and lit candles everywhere. Our power went out for a couple of hours. Our pooties were loose in the house (normally they bunk in a certain area of our house), which means Mr. Benny was so tired and didn't notice them.
I turned on the lights when the power came back on. And on my puter, I watched the Beatle's version of "Let it Be." How did I know what would portend?
Not long after the song, I went out to see Syd in our garage. She was on her way of expiring after the power came back on. She was there, but barely breathing. Then I knew the moment of death was coming. In fact, I think I witnessed her last moments.
I woke Mr. Benny, and when he took a stethoscope to Syd, she was gone.
I am glad I saw Syd move into peace. It was quick, but I'm fortunate I was there for her at the last minute of her journey.
It will be a long time before I want another dog as Elmora (our alpha pootie in addition to Benson) has hyper-t, and I want to help her live longer. But I'm encouraging pootie, woozle and other furbutts overseeers to contribute their stories about lost loved ones. Syd is just on my mind.
Lastly, those of you who have living pets, please share pics and stories about them too. That's what I love about having pets: they ask for so little for a great amount of joy they bring to our lives. While Mr. Benny and I have wounded hearts, we are celebrating our Aussies' time with us.
Let's do it here.