Our sweet Mandy Blessings left us on Wednesday afternoon. She was a gentle and sweet girl who was born with as hubby said..the short end of the straw. Her body just never worked right and in the end it was her liver that failed her. She was one of our first children. Before Hubby and I were married I wanted to get a dog. I finally talked him into getting one dog. We did research like crazy to find the calmest and most gentle dog, as he was really unsure of dogs after a bad experience he had as a child. We chose the cavalier king charles spaniel because they were so sweet and lovable. They were a little harder to find back in 1998 and finally located a litter in Southern Ca. We drove to Southern California in one day to pick her up and drive back. When we got there, there was 2 puppies left, one female and one male. Just seeing their little faces...we were sold and home came the terrible twins. We would joke in the begining that if things didn't work out we would each take a dog. Mandy was mine and James was his. Mandy and James were inseparable and would cry if one was without the other so bad that we never separated them. If one had to go to the vet, they both went and I always worried how the other would survive if somthing happened to one of them. James is handling it very well.
Hubby and I miss Mandy terribly and only hope she is now free to really run and play as only a dog should. James, her brother has been looking for her and has taken to sleeping in the spot in the office where she liked to sleep. I haven't the heart to vaccuum the office yet and late at night the last few nights I thought I smelt her there and had to look behind me to see. Since Mandy spent the last few weeks sleeping all the time in the office the boys have not noticed that Mandy's missing. We had talked with them on Tuesday that it was getting close to Mandy's time to leave us and they were handling that well. We are dreading talking with them about Mandy actually being gone and hope to do so on Sunday after BW's assessment for kindergarten. We are a little thankful to have had a few days to grieve for her before having to talk with them about her death. Keep us in your thoughts on Sunday.
Here are a few shots we have of her with the kids and her brothers the last 2 weeks.