This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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Goodnight Miley

We welcomed Miley into our family in 2015. A few hours ago we had to say goodbye.

She was a rescue. We never knew exactly how old she was. But she was not a young dog when we got her. And she always had medical complications. The shelter said they thought she might have been a breeding dog that was dumped. She had clearly been a mom before.

But to us she has just been a loving family dog.

She was sweet and loving and took good care of Alex, and the rest of us.

In 2018 the vet gave her only months to live. Even if we were very aggressive with treatments. But she still had lots left to give.

A little while after her terminal diagnosis, we got a puppy. Jetski. In part this was because we knew losing Miley would be hard on our son Alex, and thought maybe having another dog around would help. But Miley was invigorated by the new addition to the family. And I guess we just plain got lucky too with the progression of her disease. She played more and had more energy than she’d had almost since we got her. And she took care of Jetski too, even when Jetski grew to be twice her size.

In the last couple years Miley was showing her age. And in the last few weeks that accelerated quite a bit. At a regular checkup the vet said it seemed like she could go at any time, and it would probably be painful, and it was best to say goodbye now, rather than wait for her condition to get dramatically worse in an emergency situation.

She had given us years more than we expected. Good years. But it was time for the end. For her sake.

So today, we spent all day with Miley. At first it seemed like maybe we had waited too long. She was so tired, and didn’t want to get up. She had to work up strength for every move.

But Alex and Amy and Brandy threw her a feast. She had cake and cupcakes specially made for dogs, topped with steak. She had pizza. She had all her favorite treats. As soon as she saw and smelled that, she popped up and ate enthusiastically. She was very excited.

Then we took her to her favorite park. A dog park on the beach where when she was younger she had run and splashed in the waves. It was cold. Below freezing. There was snow in the air. And she was not up for walking, so we took her to the beach wrapped up in blankets in a wagon.

But as soon as she realized where she was she started trying to jump out of the wagon. We helped her out and she started running. She played a bit with some other dogs there, and she ran to the water and started splashing in the waves. She had a great time. She came back to the wagon once she was cold.

Then it was time to go. She was tired. She was ready. And we all said our goodbyes.

Miley, you were a great dog.

Good dog Miley.

We love you.

Alex and Miley

Um, so this happened…

Our older dog Miley has a new little puppy friend. His name is Jetski. He was born at a local shelter just under two months ago, and we adopted him a few hours ago. Welcome Jetski.

Miley and her sleeping boy

Snow Miley

Alex made a snow-Miley.

This is as close as Miley got to posing with her doppelgänger.

Meet our new dog Miley

IMG_2450

We lost our dog Roscoe in April. We have all felt the emptiness of the house since then. It affected all of us, but I think Alex most of all. He had never known life without a dog in the house. He mostly dealt with it by ignoring it, but he would sometimes talk about it, and it was clear he missed his dog. And wanted a new dog. And to be honest, I think we all did, although it took us a few months to be ready for it. Alex had stopped saying that he wanted to name the new dog Roscoe and paint it to match Roscoe’s coloring so that we could forget Roscoe died. He now just mentioned having a new dog.

So we recently agreed that maybe it was time to look. Amy found Miley listed at a local private shelter (homewardpet.org) several weeks ago. The picture above is the one she was listed with. The text said:

This gorgeous girl with the big grin is Miley! This sweetheart has been at the shelter too long! To help Miley find a forever home, we will include a free dog started kit – including a blanker, bowl, toys, and other supplies – with her adoption. We have also reduced her adoption fee. Miley is a happy and outgoing five year old Pit Bull Terrier. She is friendly and social with all the people she meets. She would likely do well with younger kids, as long as they don’t mind a big, wiggly companion! Miley loves to play and explore. She would love a home with a family that would enjoy taking her on lots of walks, and maybe even some other fun stuff like hiking! Miley has a big personality and can be a bit selective about her dog companions. She seems to be best matched with easygoing male canine friends. Miley is looking for a cat-free home. If you have been searching for a sweet, affectionate, and engaging companion, then stop in and meet Miley. She loves making new friends!

Amy fell in love immediately from the listing, and kept bugging us about going to visit Miley. Over the last month, we coincidentally found two separate stray dogs who we took care of as we worked to find and return them to their owners. Both were successfully reunited with their people in less than 12 hours, but I think having them in the house for even a short time convinced us that maybe it was indeed time.

So Amy asked again about seeing Miley, who was still there, weeks after Amy initially saw her picture and description. We all agreed it was OK to go visit. Brandy and Amy met her last Friday, and Amy came away even more enthusiastic, with Brandy giving a thumbs up as well.

So Alex and I joined Brandy for a second visit on Saturday. Alex was bouncing off the wall with excitement. And Miley PLAYED WITH HIM! They played fetch a bit (sort of) and Miley reacted well to having a crazy bouncing sometimes slightly rough almost six year old running around. She remained calm the whole time, and was even a bit affectionate with us. Alex took a long time to work his way up to actually saying it, but he wanted a dog, and he wanted this dog, now!

She is an older dog, and actually has a few minor health issues, requires medication, etc. She had been at the shelter almost six months since having been found as a stray, and nobody had adopted her yet. I honestly probably wouldn’t have even looked at her without Amy’s prodding either. But it seemed she needs us. And we often end up with the pets that need us, rather than the pets we would pick if we wrote up a description of what we thought we wanted. And so far it has always worked out well.

So we brought her home Saturday afternoon. Technically we are on a two week trial period. We haven’t officially adopted her yet. So I hadn’t posted. But the trial is going very well. She puts up very well with everything Alex dishes out. She is getting more affectionate with us by the day. She follows us around and is eager to get attention, from just sitting with us to actually playing. (Although she hasn’t yet played as long or as hard as she did when we visited at the shelter… I think she was trying to impress us to get the call to go home.)

Most importantly Alex got down on the floor and talked to her in “dog” and Alex says that Miley told him that she loves it here and wants to stay.

Which I think really means that Alex really desperately wants her to stay. He is so thrilled and happy to have a dog in the house again. He has been barely containing his joy for days now.

So I think absent some shocking event in the next week and a half, Miley is here to stay.

So welcome Miley. :-)

[Update 2015-09-10 00:40 UTC to add a word that was missing.]