We lost Dixie suddenly on the last day of school in 2018. We were not expecting it and even less prepared for the loss. About five months later, Jingle started to have heart problems. We put all of our energy into treating her and making the most out of whatever time we had with her. She became very spoiled very quickly! She started to sleep in Mackenzie’s bed and got treats anytime she gave us “the look” with her puppy eyes. She didn’t improve with the medication, but it did slow down what we dreaded the most and gave us more time with her.
Jingle woke me up around 4:00 in the morning whimpering. We couldn’t get her to take her medicine the night before so I tried giving it to her again. No luck. I sat on the couch with her and she slept in my lap for a little while until I had to get ready for work. I let Mike and the kids know that she wasn’t doing too well and asked Jake to keep an eye on her since he had the day off. Mike went to work. I dropped Mackenzie off at school and headed to work. Jake started texting Mike and I around 10:00 saying he was really worried about Jingle. I was sitting in my assistant principal’s office discussing the upcoming earthquake drill that was about to begin when Jake called panicking because Jingle wasn’t breathing right. I stayed on the phone with him while she took her last breath in his arms. My assistant principal heard Jake and saw me try to hold it together and lose it all at the same time and told me to go home. I called Jake from the car and he walked me through what happened. Jingle wasn’t acting like herself and followed him around the house all morning. She collapsed in the kitchen and Jake picked her up. This is when he started texting us. A couple minutes later, he followed Jingle outside and she collapsed again but didn’t get up this time. Jake sat down and pulled her into his lap, called me and she passed after a couple minutes.
I told Jake to pick up Mackenzie from school and meet me at the house. I called Mike and he was already leaving work. He said he had a bad feeling reading Jake’s texts and asked his boss if he could leave. When I got home, Jake was on his way to get Mackenzie. On the way home, I tried to prepare myself for what I would see when I went outside. I didn’t do a very good job. I dropped down beside Jingle and cried harder than I had in a long time. I cleaned her up the best I could and wrapped her up in a towel. I didn’t want Mackenzie to see her laying on the cement or Jake to relive it. Mike and the kids came home within a couple minutes of each other. The four of us sat in the living room and grieved for our naughty little chipoodle. I was honestly surprised how hard this hit me. I knew it would hit the kids and Mike hard but I thought I would just be sad. I was completely devastated. This hit me harder than losing some of my relatives. Jingle was family. She was one of us even though she was a dog. One of the first questions people asked afterward is if we were going to get a puppy. What the hell? And go through this all over again in about 10 years from now? If my child had died, would people ask if we were going to have another baby? I just don’t understand that thought process.