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10:47pm

Little Bear my once in a lifetime friend

Featuring:

Daisy

Lil Bear

Penny girl

Maggie Jo …

Lilly

This was the most incredible dog I have ever known, he was special to me, my family loved him to, oh, everyone loved him that met him, he was hard to resist. He would be the Brad Pitt of Bassetts with an Indianna Jones curiosity, Dean Martin voice, Superman eyes, and Teddy Bear snuggability, is that a word? Well it is now. That boy loved to snuggle. I don't know how I ever cross stitched one christmas present with his 82 lbs. in my lap but we did, and he supervised many projects.
Bear was born on my husbands and my bed on June 26,2000. Daisy was in labor most of the night, I lay on the floor with her and gave her a cool shower, she was so hot. When we knew she was ready we just put her in the middle of the bed and she had the first of 7 babies that day. Penny girl, Freddie, Inky, Nicky, Teddy, Little Bear and Lucky #7. My mom is a great midwife and we couldn't have gotten Daisy through it without her help. Of course I would never do that again, we never in a million years though she would have seven but whats done is done.
Bear was always our fav. our youngest daughter Sarah carried him everywhere, he was her baby. I loved Penny girl alot to but in my heart knew she would be taken by the owners of the puppies father, and she was. 2 years later they divorced and Penny returned home a changed girl, but she was home. She didn't get along with Bear at first, always attacking him, he couldn't even look her way, it was awful, I cried and cried for her and for Bear, but somehow we worked through it all and became a happy pack again.
I have to say one of Bears faults was he loved FOOD. He would try anything once, he was the best at getting what he wanted too. All he ever did was sit under the dinner table with his chin on my knee, he didn't move, just watched but usually by the end of dinner he would always have had a little dinner himself, he was good at it, without saying a word, I know its what got him to the 82 lbs.
Things Bear did to harm himself, lets see....
he once at an entire bag of Rhodes Cinnamon rolls before they were finished rising, I was so worried about him, he lay in the kitchen floor belly up for a day or so before he really got to moving around and I'll be darned if it didn't go right through him, if you know what I mean, but it was the best smelling dog poo you could even imagine, I told you, I'm a little crazy.
He loved his kennel and when he scored big he would take his finds to it to finish them off, like the entire little bowl of strawberry flavored butter I had bought for toast, still new with foil seal and everything, we never got a bit of it. Peanut butter jars were his fav thing to clean out, he always got them, now Maggie does. Maggie also has Bear's kennel, which just seems to fit somehow, I don't know why but some days I think Bear left his gentle nature here on earth in Maggie. She seems to have his personality to a tee.

I know Bear had help on this situation but he always seems to get the credit for eating an entire Cooks ham. We had dinner and somehow forgot to put it away before we went to visit Mom and Dad, well someone got it down and by the time we got home Bear had the only piece of evidence that it had ever existed, the ham bone, he was all stretched out on the dining room rug just munching away, couldn't have been happier, a $25 ham, just gone.
Little Bear always seemed to have health issues at about 4 years old he had an allergic reaction to his vaccinations, we had just left the vets office and gone to pick up my hubby, I had stopped to get the dogs some chicken nuggets and a fry, when Bear wouldn't eat I knew right away something was wrong, his face started swelling, he got huge knots all over his body, he started looking like a sack of potatoes, I left my husband at work and drove right back to the vet, thank God we did. After that his health just seemed to be one battle after another. It always seemed to be because of his weakened immune system and he just never got it back. One infection after another, we couldn't believe how much it cost to treat for a Blasto Mycosis infection, we had never heard of some of the things he came down with. Through it all he never got cranky, never snappy, always his easy going, usually food loving self. Good natured, sweetheart that loved everyone and everything. His favorite thing to do besides eat was to smell the flowers in the back yard. He would wander around in them just sniffing and smelling like they were just the best things in the world. His favorite flower, we think, was beebalm, bright purple flowers and he didn't think much of marigolds but otherwise he would spend all day laying out there. It's where he is today.

After Blasto he seemed in pain from time to time so we had his Deramax which worked pretty well, about 15 months after we thought he had made improvements but he would lose weight and gain a little, lose and gain so we kept a close eye on him. When he started limping again i feared what I thought was the worst, I was afraid he had Blasto again, only to find out that wasn't the worst it could be. It happened so fast I still sometime don't know if I, we made the right choice or not, I still cry myself to sleep from time to time over what happened. In the week before, I could see Bear wasn't feeling good but thought it was just a down week, but the day before I could see something really bad was coming. Bear quit eating, I was up every 1-1 1/2 giving him a small dish of water each time, he wouldn't even get up, but did drink each time. I had to work so I laid in bed and would keep getting up, I have been so mad at myself for so long because I didn't spend that last night with him on the stupid floor, you can just imagine how many times I have thought of that since, if I had only known. I called the vet and our girls took Bear to the vet at 8:00 am at 9:00 I got a call that our oldest had passed out at the office, they thought it was stress related but they didn't know that all 4 of us had had pneumonia for the last 4 weeks and still weren't over it yet, when she passed out a 2nd time they called the EMTs and me, my husband took her to the DR. while our youngest stayed with Bear. We had to leave Bear for awhile for tests, they gave us possibilities, tumor of the Spleen or AIHA Both weren't good so they did bloodwork and tests and we waited. When we finally found out it was around 4:30 Pm and Cleo was back with megan and Sarah's car had broken down in the driveway next to the vets office so we sat there. We all went in together, my Mom who was there the day Bear was born came to help with Sarah's car, stayed with us while we got the news. Bear's condition had worsened, They said we could try to send him to Champaign to the Vet School of Medicine but his prognosis was bleak, he had less than 30% of his red blood cells left, he could barely stand, he had stopped drinking, I could not, would not make the decision to put him down, this was my best friend, he had always been there when I was sick, he cheered my up when I was down, he licked my face when I was lonely, he celebrated when we did, he ate when we did, he was sad when we were, so it was right that we were all there with him.My husband had to tell the Dr. to put Bear down, I have never seen him cry so hard, ever, in my life, it broke his heart along with ours.

I had brought Bear's favorite blanket with me for him, we all kissed and hugged him, told him he was a good boy and I held him as he went to sleep and his heart stopped beating. Dr. Pierce helped me wrap him in his blanket and I held him the 40 min it took to get home. Sarah's boyfriend Ben came down right away to help bury Bear, it was already dark out but I knew just where he was going to be, in his beloved flower bed. I still look out at the flowers and see him there, I always will.
Bear never got to meet Lilly and I'm sure there will be others, he would have loved her, as much as Maggie does I suspect, I think that's where Maggie gets it, she spent just enough time with Bear to learn, life is short, Love while you can, enjoy the moment, the flowers, the food, the day, someday we'll see you again until then I will never forget what a friend, what a sweet friend you were to me.