Penny Lane is in my ears . . . and in my eyes!

So much has happened in the last five years. One of them is the happy addition of Penny Lane, an adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, to the Wegener Family in April, 2008.

Penny came into our lives at a most sad time. The circumstances were this at the time. Jack, our Cavalier King Charles boy, and Miracle, our Cavalier girl both fell ill during Showchoir season in March, 2008. We came home on Sunday from a weekend watching the girls perform with their showchoirs only to find Miracle in sad shape at our dog sitters. I had a sense that she wasn't feeling 100% when we left for the weekend on Friday but she was eating, drinking, doing both businesses outside, so I thought she was just a little under the weather. We left vet information with the sitters and off we went. But when I picked up the dogs on Sunday, clearly, overnight, Miracle had gotten far worse. After dropping Jack off at home, I immediately took her to the vet.

That afternoon, while at the vet, I learned that Miracle, our dear girl, was in kidney failure. Somehow, an infection went to her kidneys and caused a great deal of problems for her, with no way for me or anyone to know. She wasn't in pain but needed intensive care to combat the infection. Worried and upset, the vet sent me home by evening saying that she needed fluids, rest and anti-biotics in their intensive care unit. I woke up to the phone ringing in the early hours of the next morning saying that Miracle passed away, quietly in her sleep, just a few minutes before. The vet was compassionate beyond words. Miracle just had her 8th birthday a few weeks beforehand.

Later that day, we went to the vet's to pick out a nice box to bring home Miracle's ashes. The shock was too raw and too deep plus we all didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Jack was acting funny himself in the morning and I didn't want to take any chances with him, so brought him with us for a vet to observe if I was crazy, or if Jack, too, was falling ill. Another day spent in the vet's office and the diagnosis could not have been more distressing. Jack had an obstructed bowel and needed emergency surgery. I called home to see what to do - take on additional vet expenses or put him down. The answer was quick from the girls - they didn't get to say goodbye to Miracle - "do whatever is needed to bring Jack home". So the surgery was scheduled for the following morning, Monday. Another night, another dog that I had to leave in the intensive care unit at the animal hospital.

Jack survived the surgery, a good piece of his intestine was removed but the vet was still concerned. A piece of plastic, something that Jack could have gotten into in a trash can or off the floor, had ruptured part of the intestine and he too was fighting infection. But the news was good. He was drinking and perking up after the surgery. Rest and more antibiotics were needed so another night for Jack in the intensive care unit. The girls came with me later that night to visit him. He had a bad Frankenstein looking set of stitches along his belly but his head popped up when he heard us call to him when entering the exam room. His tail wagged. Jack was still our Jack.

The phone ran at about 5:15 am the next morning, Tuesday. Jack passed away a few minutes before the call. The infection had turned to sepsis and it was too much for Jack too. Either that or the thought of living without his best buddy, Miracle, was too much for him to bear. The vet now was crying, having to make two phone calls to us in less than three days. Jack was 9, the first dog the girls ever had. Now he was gone too. The next day, I had to go back to the vet for a second time in less than a week to pick out a second box, one for Jack.

For those 10 years or so that we had Jack and Miracle, our lives were blessed. The girls learned how to really take care of a pet and that dogs were not always scary, like the doberman that lived down the street. There was a dog for each one to cuddle with while watching TV. There is a great picture I have of the girls on the first day of school, when I brought Jack, all of a few months old, to introduce to classmates when it was pickup time. Kids surrounded the girls by our minivan, as they held their new pal. Miracle was the focus of a school academic report and got to visit school during Academic Fair night. The girls and I took obedience classes with them both. They had puppy friends that we walked with in the community, neighbors who adored them by petting their furry faces as they poked through the fence spokes and friends were made while attending Cavalier event functions.

I was and have always been struck by Jack and Miracles' last gift to us - passing over to heaven on their own - - releasing us from the burden of deciding when to put them down. They spared us that grief.

So in April, still heartbroken and sad from the lack of energy in the house and the pitter patter of toe nails on the hardwood floors, a friend emailed me the link to a Cavalier breeder in Wisconsin. There were two puppies for sale, a boy and a girl. A few emails were exchanged and I was invited to visit the Mom Cavalier and the two pups in Lake Geneva. I cried when I arrived, two dogs that looked just like Jack and Miracle were wagging their tails, watching me from the glass storm door with the front door open.

The girl was the leader of the two, that was clear! She bounced and jumped on her brother like a tomboy. She then bounced and jumped into my lap while I sat on the floor. She didn't come home with me because she wasn't available for sale, the boy was. I was not ready yet to make a decision, the pain and loss were still all difficult to handle. The dear owner was compassionate and helpful, and I appreciated the fact that she let me hold them both. While I didn't think I could bring her home, miracles do happen and over the next few days, on my birthday, the owner reconsidered and offer the girl pup to us. The girls and I raced to Lake Geneva to take ownership of our new pup. Her copper coloring just above her eyebrows made someone tell me that she looked like she had pennies on her forehead. Pennies? Penny? Penny Lane!

More stories about Penny Lane in future posts, but the lesson for all is this. Pet loss is a real grief experience. Jack and Miracle were great gifts to us and their loss, so sudden and so unexpected, still haunts me to this day, emotionally. Financially, the vet bills took nearly a year to pay off and thank heavens our vet extended a line of credit to us for all the emergency surgery and three days in intensive care expenses. You will be happy to note that Penny Lane is fully covered under pet insurance and at 3 years of age, has not lost one spring of her bouncy, silly, diva self.


My sweet one with Jack and Miracle, in happier times.