Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Wednesday was quite possibly the worst day of our lives.  We lost our best friend, our buddy, our sweet boy, and our heart.  On Sunday Baci had a seizure and we took him to emergency.  We stayed with him all night Sunday, all day Monday, on Tuesday he was by himself for 4 hours.  Things seemed to be getting better. Wednesday morning he had another seizure and we took him to the vet where he had his 3rd seizure.  We rushed to emergency again and after an MRI it was confirmed that he had a mass in his brain that was not operable.  We had to let him go, it was the saddest most horrific thing ever.  Hearing him take his last breath was  . . . there are no words.  That last image is permanently embedded in our minds.  Baci never slowed down he was always a puppy, jumping like a jumping bean and running still at almost 10 years old, and all that was taken away in 3 days.  That’s why it hurts so bad.

For those of you who know us personally, you know how much that dog meant to us.  Our lives revolved around him.  The connection my husband had with him was like no other, they were in tune with each other and always together. In those 10 years there were only two times that they were apart over night, once in 08 when Vince went to Florida with me and on our wedding night in 09.  And both times Vince was a worried mess, and Baci was sick for 3 days during that Florida trip. They had an unexplainable bond.  There were nights where I would wakeup in the middle of the night to find Vince curled up with Baci on the floor.  Or I would come home and catch them spooning on the couch.

Baci wasn’t just a dog or a pet he was our baby.  And we both treated him like a person, talking to him constantly and looking forward to seeing his face at the door when we came home.  He made everything ok.

I remember when we got him, Vince wanted to name him “Nero” but because I couldn’t pronounce it properly (this Polish girl can’t roll her “R’s”) we settled on “Baci”.  Baci means “kiss” in Italian.  The name was perfect!!! All we ever did was kiss that sweet face and he us.  Sometimes we called him “Bachinski” for his Polish roots, he liked being multi cultural.  Baci was really special, his favorite thing in the world was to find a puddle and lay in it.  It was like slow motion, when we were out, and there was a puddle (no matter how big or small) we would both run to try and stop him from laying down in it, it was awesome!  He loved riding in the car with his head out the window as well. He loved butter just like his mom, yes you heard that right, if he heard me open the container in the fridge where it is kept he would come trotting into the kitchen. Of course being a Lab he loved to swim any chance he could.  Last summer we took him to a private lake where he got to swim to his heart content.  We had a kiddie pool for him in the back yard as well.  In the winter he liked making snow angels in the snow.  In the fall he rolled around in the leaves.  He loved going to the park especially Schnee in Cuyahoga Falls, he would chase his stick there and even swim in the small creek sometimes.  We were so happy that we recently moved to a neighborhood where we could walk him on the sidewalks, it was a stupid small thing, but it meant so much.  Finally we could just walk out our front door anytime with him and not have to drive somewhere, and he LOVED going on these walks.  He loved sleeping in the “big bed” with us, stretched out straight in the middle like a person.  His other favorite thing, at least I’d like to think so, was to pose for me.  He was the BEST model any photographer could ask for and a reason why I love photography so much.  From the day we brought him home, I was taking his picture.  He loved the camera, and if I said “Baci . . . dooooo youuuu?”, he would turn his little head like he was listening and hoping that I would say “go to the park”.  It was the cutest thing ever.  I have more pictures of that sweet face than most people have of their kids.  And still I feel like there were sooooo many more to take.  I dressed that guy in the craziest outfits and took his pictures for our Christmas card each year.  He was a hippy, a ladybug, an angel, santa, superman, a runner, a reindeer, an elf, he was even a groom and last year he was a photographer.  I will never forget the day I took that photographer image, I swear my neighbors were looking out their window and thinking I was nuts.  He was running around the deck with an old camera around his neck and a hat as I was bribing him with treats.  He looks so handsome in that shot, we have a large print of it hanging in my office.  I love it!

I’m certain that he knew how much he was loved from the first day to the last.   It would have been impossible to give him any more love than we gave.  Aunt Deb said on facebook “he quite possibly was the most loved dog on the planet” there’s no “quite possibly” about it, he WAS.

I’m writing this post to help us cope in this tragic time.  It all happened so fast without any warning and now we’re sitting at home looking at each other lost, it sucks, it really really sucks.  I want us to remember all the great times we had together.  All the running, the playing, the jumping!  I’m happy that I have these pictures to remember my handsome boy by forever and I’m surrounded by things that remind me of him daily.  There are pictures of him in every room in our house and he will always be close by in our hearts.

In closing, take lots of pictures of those you love, print them, display them, protect them and cherish them.  In the end that’s all we have!  As stupid as it might sound I find great comfort at looking at the pictures and remembering all the fun times.

Baci buddy, we will never forget you and will ALWAYS love you!  Sweet dreams my love!

and this is the last image I took of him last Sunday about an hour before his first seizure, oh how I miss that perfect nose!!!