A story of love, loss and being granted second chances of four legged family members

This story is dedicated to two of my dogs that passed from this world within a month of each other. Brenna, a black Pudel Pointer left on December 16, 2005. Forbes an Australian Shepherd /St/ Bernard mix left of January 17, 2006. Brenna and Forbes were not just dogs in this house. They were family. Brenna was six, and Forbes was 15. Both of them held more human characteristics than canine. They loved to play, Brenna loved to dance and hug people. She would stand on her back legs, wrap her front legs around the waist of my son, and dance around the room with him.

As Forbes was getting into more aging years, we took him one Saturday to a local pet store to pick out a friend to bring home. He picked out Brenna as a pup when she was eight months old. She had an interesting history in her short eight months before we took her home. She was one of a litter that had been born in an illegal puppy mill. Along with her brother, they ran away from the puppy mill and made it over two hundred miles to the area where we live, before being picked up as rescues. She never knew a stranger, and held no aggression in her life to other beings. She just loved to be loved. At times, when being taken outside she would break from being put outside to exercise and would go on a run. Her speed was incredible, and catching her was not an option. As a rule after about six minutes, she would return.

On the afternoon she died, she had broken away to run, and being the middle of the afternoon, was fatally ran over by a bus. Brenna had ran half a block in a reverse direction hearing a school bus on the street and threw herself under the back wheels which was close as she could come to the bus. With my son watching, Brenna committed suicide that afternoon putting her in harm’s way of the wheels. Though there were not any marks on her body, she was gone instantly. My son picked up her lifeless body and carried her home. She was wrapped in a blanket, taken to the vet, and left for cremation.

Forbes was a large dog that commanded attention when he would bark. He was adopted after found wandering by a local law enforcement agency in a nearby town. He would always cry if he heard sirens, either from fire or police vehicles, and over the years, Brenna cried with him when she heard them. A beautiful soul of an animal that could never be matched. A bark much worse than the nature that he held. He had a compliant nature about him to change, as long as the change included the family being there with him in life. He loved in the later years just to go out in the yard and sleep in the sun. His body had become quite crippled by arthritis, and his internal body had been ravaged by disease. After Brenna left, he was never quite the same. Compliant about life, but had lost the spark that they shared being together. He definitely missed his chosen companion.

Two days before he died, Forbes was jumping and playing as if a young pup and I knew then his, time was short in our world. On the night he died, he laid down for a nap and just did not wake up again. The next morning, Forbes was taken to the vet for cremation; I hugged him, smelt him, and cried over him – never wanting to lose the moment in time of saying goodbye. Ironically enough, when the vet called to say Forbes ashes could be picked up a week later, Brenna’s ashes came back that day as well.

On the night Forbes died, I believe Brenna came back to escort him on. Lines of age and disease now gone, once again together and no longer separate.. Our hearts will always have a place for both of them, and they were very much loved. As they also loved each other. We love you, miss you, and may all your days be filled with the light of the sun to run free once again.

In the fall of 2006, my son let our two Jack Russell’s Belle and Molly out the back door; normally they would make a barrel run to a large kennel enclosure in the backyard. Sitting upstairs in my office, I heard a screeching squeal by one of the dogs. My only thought in that moment was “GOD NO!” not again.

Having lost Brenna and Forbes within the last year, I could not bear for this to happen again. At that point, I just wanted to be told of what had happened. A few minutes later, my son came through the office door. I looked at him for a moment then asked, “Did one of the dogs get hit by a car?” He said, “Belle ran out into the alley and a car coming down the alley did not see her. The car ran completely over her little body.” A woman stepped out of the car to see Belle after running over her.

I asked if she was dead, and he said no, she lay for a moment as if she was dead, then jumped up on her feet and wanted to eat. She is acting as if nothing happened! We took her to the vet even though she did not appear to be hurt. The vet checked her out and all he could find was one half-inch scrape that was not deep enough to even treat, and kept her for the rest of the day for observation.

Late afternoon I went to the office to pick her up and the vet said she just must have been one lucky little dog to brush the wheels of a car without being hurt, I informed the vet she did not brush the wheel, she was driven over from head to toe. In hearing this, he thought it impossible to survive.

I brought her back home, and received a call from the vet about a half hour later. In doing blood test while at the office he found Belle had contracted hookworm, which we did not realize. Without medicine, it would deplete her blood supply. I looked at her, telling her she went to extraordinary measures for a trip to the vet. She was treated for the hookworm, and was just fine after wards.

To me she was a miracle, in being able to have the full weight of a car roll over her body, and a moment later appear as nothing had happened. I do believe that a higher power was with a very tiny dog, and granted a request that she not be taken away.