This is probably one of the hardest posts I have ever written. It’s an emotional one too. So make sure you have some Kleenex around.
Earlier this week we lost one of our puppies. These puppies our like our children even though Snapple is technically their birth mother. They are just now 4 months old. Blossom and her five siblings (Buddy, Peanut, Twinkie, Patch and Chocolate Chip) entered into our world on May 18th. She had six puppies in all. 3 girls and 3 boys. all adorable and perfect. Not a runt in the litter. Whenever one would whine in the middle of the night, I would get up to check on them. I weighed them weekly to make sure they were growing. As they began to wean, I would make them meals of organic goats milk and baby brown rice. I was their Mother.
We called her Two Face in the beginning because of the distinct features of her face (and at that time we weren’t planning on keeping any of the puppies). And when she opened her eyes for the first time, she captured a special place in my heart forever. She had one brown eye like her mother and one blue eye like her daddy. The perfect blend of her parents. It was then that I decided to keep her for myself and I named her Blossom.
She was queen of the playpen, let me tell you. And she did not like being alone or left out. Once they got old enough to walk around, it was Blossom who first found her voice to let us know she wanted up on the couch with us. And she was quite playful too. Many times she would go up to her Daddy and attack. So fun to watch. She’d growl while playing with her siblings. Blossom always greeted me with her special doggie kisses. She especially liked the back of my ears and my toes too. She looked so peacefully curled up in a ball on my chest with her head under my chin.
It was Chocolate Chip who got sick first on Saturday evening. Wouldn’t touch his food. And then on Sunday afternoon Blossom was showing signs of being sick as well. We made sure they stayed hydrated, using the bulb to give them water and broth. By Monday morning they were both showing signs of improving. But then late Monday afternoon Blossom took a turn for the worse. It was like she lost the ability to move on her own and she couldn’t even swallow. I felt useless. Here was this little puppy who was obviously suffering silently and all I could do was hold her close until she took her last breath.
It wasn’t until later in the evening that we may have discovered why Blossom took a turn for the worse. As my husband went to sit on the bench outside he nearly stepped on a scorpion. This scorpion was near where the puppies had been resting earlier in the afternoon. I quickly hustled the rest of the dogs back into the house while my husband stabbed it with a pitchfork. As we got a closer look at the fat little vermin, we could see that his stinger was already gone.
Sadly we believe that Blossom likely got stung by the scorpion. And while most of the scorpions in the desert here are not poisonous, considering her immune system was already compromised by whatever sickness had befell two of our puppies, she just wasn’t able to fight the venom of the scorpion.
Fortunately Chocolate Chip is making a full recovery. I can only imagine how devastated our family would have been had we lost two of our puppies. Especially my son who picked Chocolate Chip for his own and named him.
I never thought that I would ever feel such a loss over the death of one of my pets. But I have to say, this one has hit me pretty hard. I feel like a part of me is missing. I can still see her ears flopping about as she followed me all over the house, searching for extras treats. She brought such joy into our lives in such a short amount of time.
My family and I will surely miss this rambunctious little puppy who was a unique blend of her Red Mini Dachshund mother and her Dapple Mini Dachshund father. Her memory will live forever in our hearts.
xoxo, Patricia