Goodbye Sweet Oreo

We had to say the hardest goodbye to our sweet Oreo. Our hearts hurt, and we've all cried many tears. It's been two weeks, and I can't even type this without my heart breaking all over again. Oreo was with our family for 13 great years! We have too many sweet memories to capture them all, but I wanted to get some of them on my blog, so we'd have something to look back on. She was truly the sweetest, most loyal pup ever. She loved our family fiercely, and we loved her right back. All she ever wanted to do was make us happy. She was the kind of dog that got better with age, and she was the epitome of unconditional love. I copied the story of how we ended up with her from another blog post and added it to this one. It's too good not to share.

Mark and I were jogging around the Green Belt, and Bailey was on her bike. Someone was giving away free puppies. We stopped to hold them, and Bailey started begging for one. I told her there was no way Mark would let us have another dog. Mark said, "I don't really care." He said it RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER!!! Well, we continued on our run, and Bailey was crying and begging the whole way. She was literally sobbing by the time we got to the truck. Mark made her get out while we talked about it. There was only one girl in the group, so Mark told her that we would drive back around and if the girl was still there, then she could have it. If she was already gone, then it wasn't meant to be, and she COULDN'T throw a fit. When we got there, people were walking off with puppies left and right. We thought we were in the clear. There were only 2 left...the girl and a boy. Right as we walked up, a young guy on a bike (probably 20 years old) picked up the girl and said he would take her. Bailey tried with all her might to hold back the tears. The guy who was giving them away tried to casually convince him to take the boy puppy, but he was set on the girl. The man finally told him that Bailey could only have one if it was a girl. He really wanted the girl, but he took one look at Bailey's devastated little face, and handed the little puppy over to her, and said he would take the boy. That's when Bailey's tears started coming. It was the sweetest thing. I was sure that he was young enough to not care if a little girl wanted the same puppy as him. It's nice to know that I was wrong, and there are so many good people out there. In the truck on the way home, I was wondering what the heck we had just done! I turned around and saw Bailey giggling while her puppy smothered her with kisses, and I thought maybe it would be okay. Mark said it just felt right. 

That's how Oreo joined our family, and I've never regretted it for a second. Reeses and Bailey had an instant best friend! Between Reeses and Bailey, Oreo was smothered with all the love a little puppy could hope for.

The sweetest little face!

This was the day we brought her home. They loved each other right from the start.

Reeses also loved her right from the start, and was so sweet with her. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of them. Oreo had a little kennel right next to Reeses, but she wanted to be in the same one as Reeses. Reeses was not thrilled at all with sharing her space; the look on her face says it all. 😂 It didn't take them long until they were always snuggled up sleeping together. They truly were best friends for their whole lives.

Oreo would climb and crawl all over Reeses, and Reeses just sat there patiently. Depending on if Oreo was asleep or awake, Reeses was either her jungle gym, or her pillow.

Bailey promised us that she would take care of Oreo all on her own, and we wouldn't have to do anything. She kept her end of the bargain more than we could have imagined. The first night we had Oreo, Bailey only got 3 hours of sleep. It was like having a newborn baby in the house, and that's exactly how Bailey treated her. She would get up at all hours of the night to let her out to go to the bathroom, then rock her back to sleep. Bailey read books about training and caring for dogs, brushed Oreo's teeth, pushed her around in a stroller, dressed her up, and basically had her own little baby. 😂 She learned a lot about responsibility, and took her 'dog mom' job very seriously. Oreo was always more than happy to play along.

This picture tugs at my heart!

Rocking her little pup to sleep. 😊

Wrapping Oreo in a blanket, and feeding her a fake bottle. Oreo just played right along.  😂

One of my favorite Bailey and Oreo stories was when Bailey wanted Oreo to have 'diapers.' She started cutting tail holes in her underwear and putting them on the dog! It was pretty cute, so I took some pictures. It wasn't until we loaded the pictures onto the computer that we noticed that Oreo had peed her underwear. We were laughing so hard! I finally had to tell Bailey to stop cutting up her underwear and to leave Oreo alone! 😁

Oreo peed her underwear!

Bailey would sit in the shade in the backyard and read for hours. The pups were always right there with her.

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Quite often Oreo would be found walking around in Bailey's Build-a-Bear outfits, and sometimes even with her toenails painted. She was every little girl's dream dog.

The cutest besties!

Halloween

Another Halloween! 😂 Oreo seriously just went with the flow.

Even though Oreo was a year younger than Reeses, she was very protective of her. If Reeses was laying down, Oreo would stand over her like this. We all thought it was annoying, but Reeses never minded it.

Watching the duck race together.

As Bailey went through her preteen, and teenage years, I thought Oreo would take a backseat in her life, but that never happened. Their activities together just changed; now it was things like getting pulled around the river on her longboard, hikes together, field trip Fridays, and backyard campouts.

Just a girl and her dog! 💙

Love them!

If there is one thing Oreo loved as much as her family, it was food. She could beg with the best of them; the cutest head tilt and everything. Mark is not a fan of begging dogs, so this picture cracks me up. 😂

Another one of my favorite Oreo memories! 😂 We took the pups to Rigby Lake, and Reeses was in heaven. She would jump off the dock like a crazy dog, fetch sticks we threw in the water, and was basically having the best dog day ever.. Oreo was never a huge fan of water. She would go in just because she would follow Reeses anywhere. Reeses fetched a big stick, and swam to the shore with it. Oreo was swimming beside her, and getting whacked in head the whole way back by the stick. We were laughing so hard. Poor pup! Good thing she was a good sport. 😂

The pups loved Grammy! They were always so excited when she came over.

So sweet!

Oreo loved to be outside, but she loved to be with us more. If we put her out, and she knew we were still inside, she would just stand at the back door and stare in at us with a sad face until we let her back in.

They loved hanging out by the fire pit with us.

The kids taught both dogs from an early age to be lap dogs. If someone sat on the ground at our house, they would end up with a dog sitting on them.

So fun watching them grow up together.

Bailey and I would have an annual backyard campout each summer with the dogs. As soon as they saw us get the tent out, they would get so excited! Reeses would just go to bed when it was late, but we woke up countless times to stinky breath in our faces. Oreo would just wander around the tent and hang out with her face in ours during the night. 😂 Bailey would wake up curled up in a ball at the bottom of the tent, and Oreo would be sprawled out on her pillow. So funny!

Nothing better than a backyard campout with the pups.

The sleeping arrangements for the backyard campouts went something like this...Reeses in her bed, me in my bed, Bailey in her bed, and Oreo also in Bailey's bed. 😂 And here is a paw on Bailey's butt as a bonus.

So excited to sleep in the tent!

We took so many fun hikes with the pups. Bailey and I would take them on 'field trip Fridays' during the summer. We'd load them up in my car and take them somewhere fun, like the sand dunes, the greenbelt, Kelly Canyon, etc.

Kelly Canyon hiking.

More Kelly Canyon hiking.

Palisades

Palisades upper lake

Field trip!

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I love them!

Helping us get our Lost Souls routes.

I feel like around the time that Bailey left for college, I noticed that Oreo had turned into an old dog. I started calling her my little old lady. I guess that's how it should go; she was there to help Bailey grown up, and now she was old, tired, and ready to rest. We replaced backyard campouts with camping trips to the mountains in the trailer. Both dogs loved it so much.

Camping!

Camping hikes!

Camping hikes!

Mark and I noticed that the dogs couldn't get in and out of the trailer anymore without a lot of help. We knew their camping days were up. We decided to take them on one more camping adventure in the fall, to end it with a bang. We took them on so many fall hikes, and they loved every second of it. It was kind of a bitter sweet trip for me. I knew in my heart we wouldn't have either of them for much longer. They had entered the twilight years of their lives. There is something I find so sweet and endearing about old dogs, especially ones who have given your family so much of themselves.

Another favorite Oreo memory. When we first got Oreo, Bailey read that one of the best places and times to bond with your dog was in the bathroom. So, she would always let Oreo into the bathroom with her. Well, she left for college, and Oreo became my little shadow. She would be devastated if I didn't let her into the bathroom with me. There is no way a dog would fit in the camp trailer bathroom with me. You could barely fit a person in it. This was Oreo while I was in the trailer bathroom. She wouldn't take er eyes off the door until I was out. 😁 

Oreo missed Bailey when she left for college. This was Bailey's first time back home. That's a very happy pup. She was so excited to have her girl back.

Bailey had to have shoulder surgery during her second year of college. She was home recovering, and had to do physical therapy. Oreo was beside her every single step of the way. I'm not even exaggerating. If Bailey was doing the exercises, She had a little friend right by her side.

The dogs really felt a void when the kids left home. Luckily Sawyer is still close, and comes over every Sunday. Sundays became the dog's favorite day of the week. 

I love this picture so much! Sawyer would have his arm resting on the edge of the couch, and Oreo would relentlessly tuck her nose under Sawyer's arm, so he would end up with his arm over her. It was so funny. She just wanted him to be touching her. Look at her sweet, innocent face. 😅

Just a few more of my favorite snapshots of her...

Seriously, can a face be any sweeter than that?

She was always, always happy!

We knew Oreo was sick for about a month. She stopped eating her dog food. We thought maybe something was wrong with her teeth. We switched to wet food, and she ate that for a few days, then she stopped eating that too. We took her to the vet, and he pretty much confirmed that she was old, and her body was starting to shut down. Just to give us some peace of mind, he put her on an antibiotic and pain pills for a few days. He said if she had an infection or something in her mouth was hurting, we'd know, and she would start eating again. Nothing helped. The only thing she would eat was pancakes. I literally tried everything, and cried every day in the process. I knew in my gut that it was time to say goodbye, but my heart was having a hard time getting on board. We let Bailey be involved in the final decision. She had a really hard time, because she was in the middle of finals, and had just had a baby. On one hand, she wanted to wait until she could get here to say goodbye, but on the other hand, she didn't want her sweet pup to suffer. Oreo had already lost 10% of her body weight in just a few weeks. Bailey just kept crying and saying she wanted Oreo to meet Nora. She said she felt like Oreo was ALWAYS there for her, and she felt like she needed to be here for her now. 😢 It broke my heart, but in the end we decided not to wait. Then Sawyer had to come over to say good bye, and that broke my heart all over again. He had seen the process of her deteriorating, so he knew it was the right thing to do, but it didn't make it any easier. I actually felt like the final act was really peaceful, so at least I had that blessing. Things got pretty hard for me after that, and it's because of Reeses. She was so confused and lost. She misses Oreo so much! There are times when I watch her and two weeks later it still breaks my heart. I honestly don't think she's going to last much longer either. She's heartbroken and lonely. We're just going to give her all the love we can and make her life as happy as we can until she decides that it's time to go be with her bestie again. I really wish our sweet pets could live forever. I hate this part of owning animals, but the heartbreak when they leave us is still worth all the memories we've had with them.

This is their final bestie picture. 😓

Oreo's last day.
Rest easy sweet girl.
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