Hello In Stitches Family,
We come to you this week with heavy hearts. Our beautiful dog, Biesen, crossed the rainbow bridge on Sunday. To say that we are sad is an understatement, but it has also afforded us the opportunity to think more about how thankful we are to have had Biesen, and many other fuzzy family, in our lives. As Wendy sat with Biesen to see one more sunrise together, these are the things that she was thinking about.
Biesen came into the In Stitches family because of Reha. Reha was Mike’s dream dog – a German Shepherd.
When Mike was retiring from the Air Force, they were in Abilene, Texas. It was normal to see people set up a pen and sell puppies in a store parking lot. This wasn’t their favorite practice but then one day, they saw a little GSD (German Shepherd Dog) and Reha came home with them.
She was a part of the family for seven wonderful years, but unfortunately they lost her to cancer.
Though they still laugh at a time when Reha the puppy met Tucker the cat. Reha performed what they call “Cat CPR” and both Reha and Tucker had a ball! It still makes them smile.
Because of the loss of Reha, they had a dog shaped hole in their hearts that Biesen filled.
Biesen came to the humane society from one of the Indian Reservations near Rapid City. Unfortunately, as a puppy, she bit one of the intake staff, so she had to be isolated for 6 weeks to make sure she didn’t have rabies. That meant 6 formative weeks with no human interaction. Then she was put up for adoption. She was scared and wild. But she fell in love with Mike as soon as she saw him. The staff at the Humane Society begged them to take her home.
That was 9 years ago.
Biesen was truly one of the In Stitches Family who met everyone with a wag of her tail. Her favorite place to be was at our helper Kay’s feet as Kay worked.
She will be missed.
We know that we are not the only one who has ever lost a furry friend, so we asked our blog writer, Ashley (hi), to share her thoughts on a pet that impacted her life.
So here I go.
I grew up with animals but my husband didn’t so he was a little less enthusiastic at the thought of a pet. But when we moved to a new state and he traveled a lot for work, I finally put my foot down and said that I needed something that was happy to see me when I got home.
So I went to the Humane Society to look for a cat. And I see this sweet little girl with a heart shaped nose who just screamed at me to get her out. Literally.
And she came home with me. This is our Daisy.
Unfortunately, we learned at her first vet appointment that Daisy had been hit by a car and broken her leg and it didn’t heal right so she needed a couple of surgeries to get it to set right.
That was a scary thing for me to go to my just-now-falling-in-love-with-a-cat husband, but he said, “Well, of course we’ll do it. She’s ours now.”
It was a tough recovery and there were some scary parts, but Daisy recovered and became my constant companion.
She would walk past everyone else to snuggle up with me whenever I sat down. She was a pretty cool cat.
At the time, we were struggling with infertility and Daisy would often be the one who comforted me when I cried alone.
So when I got surprisingly pregnant and my lap got harder to sit on, she would sit beside me and put her paw on me so that I knew she was there. And she was so good about getting off me whenever I said I had to pee.
When we brought my son home, she sniffed and sniffed around him and he squawked and she looked like her world had ended, but we learned to co-exist. Because I was still her person, we just had an extra thing to love. I would often have Daisy on my legs while I nursed my son.
In January of 2020, I noticed that her nodes were swollen so I took her to the vet and they diagnosed her with an aggressive cancer. They said to go home and keep her comfortable. Days later, she stopped eating and I could tell she was tired. So we let her go.
With all of the horribleness that 2020 brought, that still would have been the worst year just because of losing Daisy. She was my heart cat and I still miss her.
But like Reha brought Beisen into Mike and Wendy’s lives, Daisy brought Roger. And while Roger is a giant goof where Daisy was a dainty sweetheart, we love him just the same.
Animals are a huge part of our lives here at In Stitches, from horses to rabbits to cats to dogs and chickens, they are all our friends and we are so glad to have them.
And remember, life is short. Go play with your dog. Or cat. Or horse. Or gerbil.
Have you had a pet that impacted your life? We’d love to hear your story.