Our 13-year-old Rescue West Highland Terrier (Westie) died in my arms in the wee hours of December 26th. Gordon and I had adopted Rebel (named for the University of Mississippi "Ole Miss Rebels") along with his 8-year-old "sister", Annie, from Louisiana Westie Rescue. That was around the first of October, 2006.
Our veterinarian was adamant when he examined the two Westies, that sweet little Rebel was old and feeble and would probably not be with us for long. Our vet was skeptical that Rebel was 13 years old. He thought he was older.
I was not worried about adopting an older Westie...even if it led to heartache sooner than later. Rebel deserved a loving, safe home just as much as little Annie!
Above is a picture of Rebel when he was rescued from a kill shelter in Vicksburg, MS, in late September of this year.
It was a shelter with only one pen for all the dogs, and Annie had been protecting Rebel from the other dogs. We all know that dogs in a pack will attack the sick, infirm member.
Rebel was very feeble and undernourished when he was rescued. I can only guess whether he had given up hope when his master died, or whether the outside conditions were such a shock to him that he had given up hope. Perhaps the kill shelter with the pen full of strange dogs who were aggressive to his feeble state was why he was not eating.
This photo of Rebel at the shelter breaks my heart, especially after I came to know the loving, sophisticated little gentleman underneath that dirty tangle of fur.
We learned that Rebel was deaf and almost completely blind. I knew he might be a bit of a challenge, but we have had deaf pets before, and we have had blind pets.
Rebel and Annie had been obviously loved by their original owner. Apparently the owner had died a year or more before Rebel and Annie came to the kill shelter. The widow reportedly said she put the dogs outside after her husband's death.
My heart breaks even now thinking about these two little lovebugs being dumped outside, grieving for their master, and left to face the horrid Mississippi summer heat and the cold weather.
Annie is the second forlorn photo taken at the kill shelter. In their dirty, matted condnition, their chances of being adopted were greatly diminished. Rebel's chances of being adopted with Annie was almost nil.
Here are the heroes in this story:
Pat in Vicksburg has a grooming business. She received the call about the two little bedraggled Westies in the shelter, and she immediately picked them up. This was near the end of September of this year.
Pat said they were filthy, and their coats were in a horrible mess. She bathed and groomed them, and two beautiful, loving Westies emerged! They were so happy to be clean and groomed and in a loving home! While Pat is more involved in Scottie Rescue, not Westie Rescue, she generously answered the call for help, and she has kept up with their progress in the subsequent months.
The Two-headed-Westie photo shows how beautiful Annie (foreground) and Rebel (background) looked after Pat and Vickie nurtured and loved them back to health! This photo was taken on the lap of my mother, Alice.
Vickie in Hammond, LA, is the next hero in this story. She has two Westies of her own, and she has fostered rescued Westies for quite a while. She is a busy professional who had just moved to Hammond, and was thus involved in the extra work of moving, settling in, construction, new job, etc.
She did not hesitate to drive up to Vicksburg to pick up Rebel and Annie and take them to her home to live with her family while they got back on their feet.
Laura in Shreveport, LA, is the founder of Louisiana Westie Rescue, and she is another hero in this story. I've known her through phone, Internet and mail contact for right at a year now. My admiration and appreciation for what she has done and what she continues to do for this breed reaches beyond my ability to describe in mere words. She personally fosters rescued Westies, and she handles all the applications, the foster homes scattered in a number of states, the logistics, the evaluation of potential adoptees, the website and....many other Westie Rescue tasks about which I have no way of knowing.
I should mention that Louisiana Westie Rescue works in cooperation with Missouri Westie Rescue. Every once in a while, I meet someone who is not familiar with breed-specific rescue organizations. Regardless of the breed you love, there will be a rescue organization seeking out and rescuing the abandoned dogs of that breed. There are many ways you can help a rescue organization. I'll share some of those ways in the days ahead.
Rebel was an immediate and perfectly-trained lap dog. He spent hours sleeping in my mother's lap. At age 84, she spends a lot of time in her recliner or in her hospital bed.
For the two-plus months we were blessed with Rebel, he was her faithful companion, snuggling with her for hours every day. All of us were delighted to see the warm, happy glow that filled my mother when Rebel was in her lap!
Rebel and Annie were obviously accustomed to snuggling and sleeping on human beds! We started calling them our "bed bugs"!
When we saw how perfect these two little discarded dogs were in the areas of bathroom protocol, sleeping with humans and snuggling skills, it hurt all the greater to imagine the emotional and physical shock they had been through since their master's death.
At first Rebel started gaining weight and slowly gaining stamina. He no longer wobbled and fell down when outside tending to his business. He began to be able to hop up one or two steps to get back in the house. Then he was able to walk all the way back to my mother's recliner (or bed) and wait for his "air lift" back to his snuggle post.
After the first couple of days here on the farm, Annie virtually ignored "brubber", as my husband called him. I assume she knew he was safe and happy, and that she no longer needed to protect him. Annie has spent the last two-plus months stealing everyone's hearts and making our four large English Shepherds jump at her every bark or growl. (More on her spunk and leadership in another post.)
Then, Rebel started to eat less and less and became weaker and weaker. It was a fast decline. Our vet said it was just his time. The last 12 hours of his precious life, I spent curled up on the bed with him, petting him. If I left him for even a moment, he wimpered, so Gordon continued petting him when I needed a break.
In those final hours, Annie lay within a foot of her big brother and watched him slip away, his breathing labored and his little heart beating at times as much as 160 beats per minute, leading to eventual heart failure at about 4 a.m. Tuesday morning.
He is buried on the hillside to the east of my grandmother's house (that Gordon and I are slowly renovating). Two other beloved pets are buried there, and we have planted hardwood trees on their graves. We will plant a special tree for Rebel.
Rebel's short time with the four of us here on the farm has changed us significantly. When my anger surfaces at the neglect and suffering inflicted on these little Westies, Gordon reminds me that if the widow in Vicksburg had not given up these precious babies, we would not have been able to adopt them, and our lives would not have been so richly blessed by these powderpuffs.
Annie has been working doubly hard the last two days to fill the void left when Rebel crossed that Rainbow Bridge. Even now, she is sleeping against my back just like Rebel slept. She has spent time snuggling with Mama, and she has still found time to flirt with Unc and Gordon. Annie was too tired to show much interest in chasing Rosalie the cat tonight!
I will still cry over Rebel's death just as I cry for other beloved pets who have left this earth. The love from each dog or cat that has blessed my life has grown my heart larger to be able to give more love to even more pets. At least, that is the way I look at it so that I won't shut down in fear of the pain of losing another pet.
I'll post a couple more photos of Rebel and Annie. Please tell me about your rescue pet or about losing an older pet. If you have a Westie, I would love to hear about it! You know how to reach me!
Soon, I must show you and tell you about Molly, the little Westie Rescue who rocked our world, and the hero who fostered her!
For a little show-and-tell to go with a project I wanted to blog, I pulled out a pair of pillowcases that I had embroidered some years ago, and I discovered AGE SPOTS!
I vividly remember being in Mrs. Kennard's Home-Economics class at Starkville Academy in Starkville, Mississippi. That embroidery was so much fun that I finished the second pillowcase in no time at all. That was when Mama taught me about threadcount and percale vs. muslin, and she made sure we had some good percale pillowcases on which to iron the embroidery transfer. I had visions of embroidering the design on a flat sheet for my bed, and then moving onto the violet design in that Butterick or Simplicity or McCall's pattern.
The project I am working on is our hand-stitched Christmas ornament for this year. It has roses which made me think of those old pillowcases.
When Gordon and I married three years ago (today is our anniversary!), I decided to make a Christmas ornament each year that would represent that year.
One last show-and-tell today...since we are on the subject of roses:
My StumbleUpon Page
