Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Izzy's Last Chapter

This post is dedicated to our Izzy girl, who warmed the hearts of everyone she met. 


In the past six months, Izzy was free. She felt the wind in her hair, watched the ground pass by between each gallop, the sun on her face as she picked a spot to sprawl out and take a nap. She was a true country dog, with acres of fields and woods to explore and neighbors to visit. 

Stan, the nice dog-loving man who so generously offered to take Izzy last fall, told us that she would frequently visit the neighbors and hang around for part of the day. They had all come to love her and would call Stan to let him know, "Izzy came to visit again today." 

But her country days weren't all sunshine and butterflies -- she was picked up twice by the puppy police for running a little too far. 

Really though, that's the essence of Izzy. Despite her outrunning her boundaries, tearing up blankets, pillows, flower gardens, walls, escaping the fence we built for her, escaping the electric fence we bought for her, running through ponds and coming home wet and stinky -- all we could do was love her. 




You'd look in her eyes and you almost felt like you were looking into a person's eyes. She was the size of a small horse, but her spirit was so beautiful and kind. 



When she was a puppy, a few weeks after we brought her home, we realized she had a bad case of mange. We took her into the vet and they told us it would probably get worse before it got better. They weren't kidding. She lost all of the hair on her head and the mange wreaked havoc on her body. But after several months of battling it and several visits to the vet, she overcame it. But in the process, she made friends with every person in the vet's office. They all knew her by first sight and would come out of their offices to greet her when they heard she was coming in. The vet we were using at the time would tell Izzy how beautiful she was -- even when the mange was at its worst. At the time, I thought what a great person she was to show so much love for a dog that wasn't her own, but looking back, I can see that Izzy's kindness had won her over, too. 


We found out yesterday that Izzy passed away three weeks ago. 

She would have been seven in December. 

At the time, it didn't seem like the best Valentine's Day present, but now I know — there was no better present than a dog that emanated love. 



Farewell, good friend.



1 comment:

Silvia said...

So sorry for the loss of Izzy. Losing a beloved pet is almost as bad as losing a beloved human.