Losing Stormie & Honey

The pack lost two members in two weeks time. 

Stormie (top) lost her battle with cancer and HoneyBee (bottom) lost her life to Congestive Heart Failure.

Stormie (top) was diagnosed with Cushings about a year ago. She was doing really well with treatment. In September, I started to notice her breathing was changing and she would have episodes of heavy breathing. She had a visit with her veterinarian who discovered she had a mass on her liver that was blocking her gallbladder. We could have done exploratory surgery but I opted not to do that because at that point, Stormie was still Stormie. Surgery would have been hard on her and recovery would have been hard. Plus, I felt in my gut there was more going on. Stormie had a follow up with her veterinarian a month later where we discovered she had developed more masses. After that, Stormie began to lose weight and her episodes of panting became more frequent but she still enjoyed a lot of her daily things and still had a good appetite. It was when her appetite began to deminish and she began to have diarrhea that I knew her time was close. Late one night, her breathing was more labored so I took her to our overnight veterinarian and said, “Goodbye.” 

HoneyBee was lived with Congestive Heart Failure for about a year. Aside from a few bad days of lethargy and coughing, she was doing really well on her medications. One Sunday afternoon, I came home and noticed Honey was coughing more and coughing up phlegm. She had been taking lasix with her morning meds with and occasional evening dose when needed. That evening, I added a lasix hoping it would help her. The next morning, I could tell she needed more than her dose of lasix, so we visited our veterinarian. The doc was honest with his thoughts that she was at her end but was willing to try IV lasix. It had only been two weeks since Stormie passed, so I had to try it. After 8 hours of IV lasix and being on oxygen, she was not improving. She could not be off her oxygen long without going into a coughing fit again…she was basically suffocating. I told the doc they needed to invent little portable oxygen tanks for dogs 🥹 I said, “Goobye” to my HoneyBee two weeks to the day after losing Stormie. 

Stormie and Honey had their own roles in the pack. Stormie was the nurturer who went with me to do events and work on my small-business booths. Everyone loved Stormie. Honey rode with me every morning to do my morning pet sits and enjoyed going in to visit some of the pets that I knew would accept her. 

Losing a pet is the hardest part of having them, but it does not negate the joy and love they bring. The other members of the pack are feeling their absence too. 

I will fill their spots one day soon. There will never be another dog like either of them, but I know there is a special one or two out there waiting to join our pack.

Until then, ‘Bye for now sweet girls! I love you bunches.