remembering The Princess

Princess Leia

Just a few days ago, we said goodbye, way too soon, to Princess Leia. She had only been with us for a little over three months, but in that time had made a big imprint on our, and a lot of other folk's, hearts.
Our first view of Princess was laying on the floor at a rural animal control facility.

She was thought to be a senior dog and we took her as a hospice case. Once we got her to our Dr Benner, we found out that she was relatively young, under six years old. She was covered with fleas and with scars from a terrible and unknown past. She was severely dehydrated and her eyes were almost entirely covered by her third eyelid. We were unsure of whether she would survive a week. Amazingly enough, she began to make progress. By her second week she had gained almost 10 pounds and was eating and drinking healthily.

Princess continued to make progress a little bit at a time. It was so exciting to see her run down the driveway or to lay down in the grass and bask in the sun. We were starting to think of her as being a dog in recovery rather than one in hospice. More than that, we were completely taken by this little girl's spirit and will to live. We started to envision a full, happy life for her. A life that she hadn't come anywhere near in her past.

Every day, Princess would do things that seemed like great strides. One day she ran happily down the driveway, another she kicked up the dirt after she peed. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it really was something to see. Her tail was coming down from tight against her belly to straight down in back. One day we were sure that we even saw a little wag.
By early November, Princess was about to make her first trip out into the world, away from OFSDS. We were on our way to Utah for a workshop and Princess was on her way to what would be a spa vacation with a trusted friend of ours. We thought that Princess was doing great because we had seen such progress, but our friend, Tonia, was taken aback at the obvious distress that Princess had been through.
Princess had a true vacation with Tonia. She was pampered and happy. Princess was truly treated like royalty. We got this picture and knew that she was having the time of her life.

When Princess Leia returned home, she made great progress very quickly. We were very optimistic that she was going to someday be a "regular" dog able to live a good life like any other dog. She climbed up on the couch to sleep for the first time in mid November. She would climb up there often after this.

At Thanksgiving, Princess was really starting to enjoy her life. While our Grandsons were playing in the yard, she showed an interest in playing fetch. For the next hour, she played fetch and for the remainder of her life, she enjoyed a game of fetch everyday.

Right after Thanksgiving, Keller came to live with us. Keller, blind but gentle, seemed to be the perfect roommate for Princess Leia. She had been taking walks regularly with Bandit and with other dogs, but had not had close contact with any dog on a regular basis. Keller and Princess got along great on walks, but after a couple of "disagreements" were separated while they were alone. She still seemed to really enjoy his company on walks and we felt that she was getting some great socialization with him. We expected that they would be great friends eventually.

Little did we know at this time, Princess had internal problems that were fighting her as she was getting psychologically stronger and stronger. A couple of weeks after Thanksgiving, Michael commented that Princess looked as if she were losing weight again. Her appetite was good, but she was not able to keep her weight. I weighed her and was shocked to see that she had lost several pounds since a few weeks before. We brought her to Dr. Benner for a checkup and her blood work did not show any obvious problems. An x-ray showed that her liver was much smaller than it should have been. We scheduled an ultrasound for a few days later.

She never made it to the ultrasound. She quickly stopped eating or drinking at all, we had to syringe feed her and give her subcutaneous fluids several times. She was getting more and more disorientated and her problem could not be identified. We are convinced that the abuse and distress from her life before us had caused insurmountable damage to her internal organs.

I spent a lot of time just laying with her for those last few days. In the middle of the night on December 7, Princess called to me. I went to her and lay with her in her bed and she passed so peacefully on to the Rainbow Bridge.

We miss Princess and we especially miss the dreams of having her enjoy a long and normal life. She was starting to enjoy being part of a family, doing the things that dogs enjoy doing. The life that she came from caused too much damage to her physical body, and she could not recover from that. We are thankful for the short time that we had with this sweet girl. We wish that it were longer, but at least she had a short chance to enjoy her life and was able to see that living didn't have to be a terrible thing.

We will never forget The Princess.