The Make A Wish Foundation-Puppy Style

I was at my office, working as normal, when the manager of Community Health and Animal Control came in. He said there was a recent donation of puppies that were super cute and he thought he'd just let me know. I didn't really think too much of it until I mentioned it to Stephen. He said he'd been thinking of getting a second puppy for Shadow, to help with his recovery and to give him a play-mate during the day.

So we made the trek to the pound once again to look at the new puppies. There was only 1 left of the original batch that I was told about, and we didn't have a good feeling about him (he would growl whenever we would get close to the kennel). But next to him was a chihuahua and 2 super tiny puppy mixes (they looked rottweiler/pinscher mix). Even though they aren't allowed on base, we decided we would get one of the puppies anyway! I went back to the pound after work to get her. She was super cute and curled up on the blanket on the way home and fell asleep. Adorable.

When I got home, Shadow was in the backyard pen, and Stephen was out at work. I left the little puppy in the truck while I went and got Shadow. I hugged him and kissed him and took him over to where his little sister was. He was SO excited! He would follow her around the house everywhere, and always lick her.

It was pretty tough, trying to take care of both dogs and get dinner ready especially since Coco had no idea when she would go potty. So that was pretty messy...  For the rest of the night, we played with the two puppies, gave Coco a bath, along with flea medicine, and spent most of the night pulling the dying fleas off of her. Shadow let her sleep on the big doggy bed in the crate, while he slept on a small blanket outside the crate.  Stephen also had to go to work early, so I had to take care of both dogs in the morning. Coco was still sleeping, so Shadow and I snuck out to get us breakfast. Once she woke up, she started to whine and cry. Shadow perked right up and ran to the bedroom to go get her. She stopped crying as soon as she saw him. It was precious!

I went to work, and got a call from Stephen less than 2 hours later. He was crying so hard, I had no idea what happened, but was very worried. Coco died. She had started to throw up all over uncontrollably, and we guess she asphyxiated on her vomit. Stephen heroically tried to give her CPR (mouth-to-snout) but it didn't work. While this happened, Shadow was hiding under the table, really scared.

I rushed home, had Stephen shower off with Shadow, and helped calm them both down. We cuddled on the bed for a while before we needed to get back to work. I was super sad for Stephen, but Coco was supposed to be his puppy. I picked up Coco and put her in a box, and we scrubbed the floors.  I went over to Bethany's (where I lost it) and she said she would go check on Shadow to make sure he was ok.

We were really glad that we were able to make Coco feel loved and more comfortable for her last day of life. We miss her, but won't be getting another dog for a while!