Today would have been Nittany’s 13 birthday. Thanks to Facebook I woke up with a ton of memories of past birthdays. Throughout this process I have realized the power of posting things on Facebook. In the moment you are just sharing a quick memory or giving people a little view in to your life. Years later when the memories pop back up it can transport you back to a different time in your life and it brings back a wave of memories and emotions. After losing a pet they can be bitter sweet memories with lots of smiles and tears. While it can hurt at times I do like starting each day with these memories.
The point of this post is not to spend more time grieving but rather give an update on what we’ve been up to lately. After we lost Nittany we couldn’t even imagine getting another dog. But, as the weeks passed the house was feeling empty without a second pup. Paterno has adjusted to being only dog but we were afraid he might be a little lonely. We didn’t want to jump in to getting another dog but we did start seriously talking about potentially fostering dogs for a rescue. (We have fostered before and that is how we ended up with Paterno – so we totally know that fostering can be a slippery slope that could bring a second dog in to our family permanently but we are determined for that not to happen this time.) We talked a little about what breed of dog we would want to foster and ended up deciding our experiences with Nittany were amazing and we wanted to help other labs and lab mixes find their forever homes so we applied to be a foster family for the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue. After a phone interview and a home visit we were approved! I completely understand why they have to go through the process of the interview and home visit but the entire time I just kept thinking isn’t the fact we have kept two dogs alive for 10+ years enough of a track record?! Yes, our lab had recently died but it was for something that was not our fault and we gave her the best life right up until the end. Yes, our other dog has a neurological disease, but again, totally not our fault and we have been successfully treating his condition for almost two years.
So fast-forward from getting approved to agreeing to take our first foster dog. We got an email last Sunday with the information about the dogs that would be coming in on the transport this week. After all the anticipation of applying for and getting approved to foster I somehow had gotten cold feet. I wasn’t sure if we were ready for another dog yet, even on a temporary basis. So, I didn’t respond to the first request for fosters and hoped that other foster families would step-up and take the dogs that came in this week. As the beginning of the week wore on the emails got more urgent the guilt set in and on Tuesday afternoon I finally pulled the trigger and said that we would be available to foster this week and selected a cute 4-6 month old black lab mix named Boogie. Tuesday night I went to the store and bought some puppy supplies (it’s been a REALLY long time since we had a puppy in the house) and got ready for the pup’s arrival on Wednesday.
Wednesday night after work we headed east of the city to the drop-off, pick-up spot. We had to drive to the DIA area at rush hour – it was a great way to start the evening. Paterno came along because the pick-up time was at the exact same time he needed his medicine. They told us that the transport van would meet us at the Petco parking lot at 6pm and we patiently waited for a passenger van to arrive with the pups. At a couple minutes after 6pm a moving van pulled up and someone jumped out, ran around to the back and opened the door to reveal cage after cage of dogs that had been rescued. There were probably 30 dogs on the van all coming from points east and going to all the different rescues in the Denver metro area. There were huge dogs and tiny dogs coming down the ramp of the van and going to their respective foster families. Some dogs were so excited to be off the van they bounded down the ramp and other dogs that were so scared and timid they had to be carried. After what felt like forever they finally unloaded Boogie. Boogie was so nervous coming off the van and tried to ran from every loud noise and sudden move. From the beginning we knew Boogie had the potential of being a handful. After we let Boogie get a little comfortable and used to being off the van we had to get him checked out by the amazing Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue volunteers. The checked him over and gave him his microchip. Boogie has some strange bumps on his ears and a scratch on his tummy that the volunteers requested we get checked out by a vet. After the initial excitement we introduced Boogie to Paterno (who became fast friends) and headed to the car for the ride back home.
During the car ride Boogie was a complete angel. He just stared out the window at the passing scenery and seemed to be a little more comfortable. When we arrived home his nerves returned and he was very nervous about everything in the house (except Paterno). Because he didn’t really seem comfortable insider he spent some of this first evening in the backyard chasing moths. He seemed to feel more comfortable outside and we wanted him to be as comfortable as possible. After it was too dark to see a black dog in the backyard (and we didn’t want to be the people who lose their first foster dog) we came inside and got Boogie settled in to his crate. Boogie really seems to like his crate and chooses to go there whenever he gets nervous or afraid so we just made his crate available to him and let him settle in for the night. 
While we successfully made it through day one of fostering we knew there was a lot more to come…Continue to check in for your adventures in adopting.
With a lot of rescue dogs they don’t come with any history so you don’t really know where they came from or what their lives were before they got to Colorado. There are so many things that could have happened to Boogie to make him so fearful and timid. It was our job to make him as comfortable as possible until he can find his forever home.
I am not known for being an overly emotional person. If you ask anyone (other than my husband) they will agree that I am pretty even-kelled. (My lucky husband on the other hand gets to see the good, bad, and ugly of my emotions.) I never cried in front of people and it was rare that people knew when I was upset, mad, or sad. That was until recently. With the passing of our pup Nittany so much has changed in our lives from our routine to our conversations to planning for the future. The one biggest thing that has changed for me personally is my ability to keep my shit together emotionally. I have found myself bursting in to tears at work when I look at a picture of Nittany, in the car when a song comes on the radio that Nittany and I used to do puppy dance party to, and everywhere in between when I remember something about Nittany. The tears are both happy and sad but they come so unexpectedly that I feel like a ticking time bomb.
My running has been a huge area where I have been struggling lately (see sometimes the Jolly Runner talks about running). It started out being tough to run because Nittany wasn’t there to welcome my back, so I was avoiding runs during the week. I was still running on the weekend because that was a different routine where Nittany wasn’t as big of a part of my return home. Because I am in a training plan for my next half marathon in October my runs have been longer which give you a lot of time to think. I have grown to despise this time in my head. Eight miles of just being in your own head can be healing but it can also be painful. Running around town I see all types of dogs with their families and it is a reminder of what I’ve lost. During and after runs in the past I have experienced the normal “runners high,” feeling strong, happy, and confident. Lately the “runners high” has been overly emotional and while I feel more energetic I also seem to be sadder too. This time in my head and the sadness that follows makes me want to just take a break from running but I couldn’t even imagine what kind of emotional mess I would be in a cut out running all together.
When I moved to Colorado my husband promised me we would get a dog. Less than two months into our Colorado adventure we were picking up Nittany and taking her home. Nittany has been with me through everything Colorado has thrown at me…home sickness from moving half way across the country, a husband who was a full time PhD candidate (it’s kind of like being a widow), getting married, moving a bunch of times, changing jobs too many times, and finally settling in to a great life in Denver with a job I absolutely love. She licked up my tears when I was sad and happily participated in puppy dance party when I was excited and happy. But, in August we will have lived in Colorado 13 years which means Nittany is 12 and closer to 13 then I would like to admit.
her a pet – she is a member of the family). Everything I’ve gone through with Nittany has been a first for me. Having a dog spayed, rushing a dog to the emergency vet because she had eaten a stuffed animal and got really sick, rushing to the emergency vet because she got stung by a bee and her face grew four times its original size, finding out that swans chase dogs when Nittany decided to take a quick dip in City Park Lake, having to put a dog under anesthesia because she somehow chipped her front tooth and it had to be pulled out, getting a call from a stranger who had found your dog downtown Fort Collins because she ran away and was mooching food off strangers at a sidewalk café….and this was probably just the first two years of her life.
make the most difficult decision of your entire life so that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore. Nittany started getting sick shortly after the New Year and after several rounds of antibiotics and steroids and nothing really helping her get better it was discussed that that most likely cause of her illness was a nasal tumor. Before that time, I never even thought that there was an end to Nittany’s life. I was naïve and liked to think that she would be with me forever. But, the reality was here and Nittany wouldn’t be in our lives forever.
lives and we even came up with a plan for Nittany’s last week with us, but the pain of knowing our time was limited was breaking our hearts and making us question our decision every minute. I think we were both looking for a sign to know that our decision was the right one but we both agreed that Nittany had always been there for us and we needed to be there for her and make sure she isn’t in any more pain than absolutely necessary.
the Entire Universe Award and today she gave us one last gift for which we will be forever grateful and will seal her title for eternity. As we struggled with knowing if what we were doing was right or not Nittany gave us a sign and we knew it was her time to go…to go and not be in pain anymore and to finally be able to sleep a restful sleep. Nittany went peacefully to sleep on the morning on Monday, July 18, 2016 after over 12 happy years with our family.
