OkcPets Magazine May 2021

May/June 2021 • OKC Pets 11 LOCAL All in favor of shopping WWW.COXBUSINESS.COM Raise Your Paw! spend some final time with our puppy. We got the chance to tell him the things once again we had been telling him for the past eight months: “We love you so much. You are the very best boy.” And we added one more—“you don’t need to fight anymore, sweet boy.” With great compassion and a gentle hand, the veterinarian came in and released our Stewie from his failing body. He relaxed in our arms and took his last breath, with our tears falling on his precious face. That drive home was one of the longest of my life. Stewie was supposed to be with us for years to come. We had been planning to celebrate his first birthday the very next day. We had a cake for him. It all seemed so unbelievable and painfully unfair. Stewie’s cause of death was of- ficially juvenile kidney failure. We don’t know what caused it or if his trigeminal nerve disorder was somehow linked or not. We did not push to find out. All the post- mortem knowledge in the world wouldn’t bring our boy back. I always believe life hands you lessons in every situation, the good, the bad, the sad. This time, I will admit, it took me a bit to find the lesson in losing a young, brilliant dog in the blink of an eye. And then, when it was time to celebrate our Howie’s 15th birthday—a milestone birthday for any dog—it hit me. It doesn’t matter if you have a dog for eight months or 15-plus years. Once you let a special dog into your heart, you love them completely and fiercely. You embrace every moment. You shake off a chewed shoe or a hole dug in the yard. You marvel that a creature so different from you manages to communicate and bridge the gaps. You appreciate how much richer your life is for bringing them in to be a part of your family. Losing a dog at such a young age was a first for us, and I honestly feel so robbed. While we still ache daily for our loss, we will always remember Stewie and his puppy antics with a laugh and a smile. The space he filled in our hearts would have covered a cake with dozens of flickering candles. Time is never guaranteed—a hard lesson learned. But love for a special dog is also powerful magic. And that is something a timeline can never erase. Portrait of Stewie