We lost Hope

Gentle, sweet, kind, mother to everyone including Molly. But all of us have a limited amount of time here and Hope’s time was running out Friday morning. I made her comfortable in the truck, close to where I could keep my hand on her and she passed away on the way up to the farm. I buried her on the hill, close to Lisa and next to her friends and family.

Hope’s daughter, Happy was getting close to her due date. I left her loose in the yard like always. Happy never leaves home. I was busy trying to get the lawn mowed and work on the lawn mower and a thousand other things and I wasn’t in a very good mood. The feeling of loss was getting all too familiar.

I had just turned Lovey and Taylor loose to chase a rabbit by the house when Lisa’s mom called, she had apples for me. Soon as I got home I found Lovey and Taylor running close by and stayed with them until dark, then brought them in the house with me. Happy usually comes in at dark but I hadn’t seen her. She would be OK outside with the other dogs and there was an airline kennel in the garage the puppies like to sleep in.

It rained hard that night, the sound of heavy rain on the steel roof woke me.

Saturday morning I went looking for Happy, and could not find her.

I called and called, looked in every dog house and hiding spot and all the places they like to go. Any kind of shelter she could have used. Nothing. It rained off and on all day Saturday. Heavy, cold rain.

I peeled and cored and put enough apples in the freezer for at least 20 apple pies. Cody came and wired up some outlets in the kennel. Buttercup and Monroe got their turn to chase rabbits and both of them got to sleep on the bed with me.

And I lost Hope and Happy on the same day.

Sunday morning I was out taking care of the dogs first thing, and there was Happy. And she was skinny. I followed her around, and followed her around, and finally she led me out in the swamp behind the house to some thick, heavy canary grass in the low ground, and stopped and looked at me.

“Go find your puppies”

She just stood there by some heavy matted down grass and looked at me. I started digging down through the grass, and found a nest under it with four warm, dry, healthy little female puppies.

I found Happy again. Hope can’t be far away.

 

8 thoughts on “We lost Hope”

  1. This made me want to cry as Sunday morning as we were getting ready to head out to the lake Carmella jumped out of the truck and ran and none of us saw where she took off to and didn’t even know she was gone until Alex asked where she was. We turned around went looking for her and found her running across the street from our house the next block over with her tail between her legs. When she came to us it looked like she had gotten into a small tiff with something as her ears were wet as well as her snout. Maybe it was a weekend for Hopes kids and Grandkids to have a time of grieve on there own without their human family members around.

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  2. Sorry to hear about Hope, I don’t think I ever met her. Bullwinkle is doing great. Up to 12 lbs now. I get lots of compliments on how cute he is. He’s the hit of the dog park. I’ll send you some pictures.

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  3. I’m so sad to hear about Hope she is the Mother to my dog Hunter and Hornet is/was his dad. Hunter is my second beagle I have owned but he is the best dog in the world sometimes you just know when you have them that they are special. I felt that when I met Hope she was so charming, so well behaved and really good Mom. and I knew she would have special pups, I had my heart set on a girl because that was what my 1st beagle was but Hope won me over and I bought the last Pup of the litter. Hunter may have been the last pick of the litter but you I feel like I got the best pup He is so loving cuddly and cute and very social, he gets along with all dogs and very happy and playful. He has a great temperament and I know Lisa worked hard to breed that into all your dogs and I really feel it makes a difference. I am thinking about getting a second beagle to keep him company, Keep us posted.

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    • Karen I also have a puppy from Hope and Hornet. I believe Happy is their sister. I would love to see a picture of your dog. Our dog is named tucker. We also have another dog, Cooper. He was born in 2012 and his parents were June and Law. My email address is Natalie@mybbinsurance.com . Please send me pictures of your dog. Tom I would appreciate it I fyou can share this with Karen

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      • Hi Natalie, sorry it took so long to reply we have had a lot going on. I would like to upload pics of Hunter but don’t know how.

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