Chess

This is our sweet sweet girl. She is 12 and we found out today that she has congestive heart failure.

We saw the x-rays today. Her lungs are full of fluid and that is making it hard for her to breathe.

If you know me, you know we have been expecting her passing. She is 12, we knew when we got her 5 years ago, as an older dog that we wouldn't have a lifetime with her. She is a wonderful dog, the BEST dog we could have ever asked for.

Right now our biggest struggle is telling the boys. They came to the vet with me today and saw the x-rays too. Our vet is so wonderful. He showed us images of her chest and images of a healthy dog's chest. He explained how her lungs were white because they were full of fluid and how her heart was larger because it was sick. This is our step one, explain to the boys she is sick. Step two will be harder. We plan to take her back to the vet on Friday to have her put down.

They have already voiced some worries about themselves and our little dog missing her 'if' she died. I explained to them that Sampson is a dog and that God made him different then people. Sampson doesn't have feelings like we do, he is a happy dog and even though he will miss Chess for a little while he will become a happy dog again. At that point Andrew said he didn't want to talk about Chess being gone anymore. I plan on getting copies of these pictures for the boys tomorrow. They were taken two falls ago by this wonderful couple Beaty Photography

On an thankful note, (I can't end this post with all sadness!) I am so thankful that this is the first time my children have had to deal with a death of a loved one. I am so thankful for our sweet girl, she has put up with our growing boys and truly did a wonderful job of it!