Snuffles. That was my first furry kids name. She wasn’t just the best Pembroke Welsh Corgi…she was the best dog ever. My wife and I married in early January 01’ and even though we didn’t have a lot of money we decided to get a puppy. I figured it was that or have a baby and a dog is a lot cheaper. So I had always wanted a Corgi and my wife found one for sale one day so off we went to get this little 8-week-old sable female corgi. I never in my wildest dreams would imagine the adventure we were partaking in.
Snuffles was the only furry kid out of the 4 we have had now that came from the apartment. So she knew just how good life was to be able to run free off a leash in the backyard when we bought a house when she was 9 months old.
Snuffles was the most educated of all our dogs….Puppy class, basic obedience, advanced, clicker trick, canine good citizenship. She was awesome. Very very intelligent. I joked she knew more English than 90% of immigrants.
Snuffles put up with a lot from her mom and dad. We brought home Smokey Bear a rescued male tabby in November 01’. She thought he was the best present ever. Soon followed Feynman a male Pembroke Welsh Corgi in June of 2002. Feynman and Snuffles were best friends. They had more corgi wrestle mania sessions than I can count. The introduced us to the “corgi evil eye”….In the summer of 03’ (July) we brought home a little Bernese Mountain Dog named Heidi. Snuffles first looked like ok guys again….come on another dog…? Quickly Snuffles was looking up at her older sister but she always let her know who was in charge. In 04’ another family member was added…
Hubble a male tabby.
Life was perfect for my zoo of a family. Years went by and my furry kids grew closer and closer together. That all came crashing down when we lost Feynman to cancer on October 18th 08’. We weren’t sure how Snuffles or Heidi would handle losing their play mate. It was a lot quieter in our house for the next month until my wife found a 4 year old rescue corgi in need of a good home. We brought him home and named him Stitch. He fit so well into our family that it even took Heidi a day to figure out that’s not Feynman. We were a 3-dog family again. Still reeling from the loss of Feynman but it helped having Stitch around. In the early spring of 09’ Heidi started getting sick. It took a while to find the problem. It was cancer. Heidi fought on until April 18th when we let her join her older little brother in Heaven. It was 6 months to the day we had lost Feynman. So here we were a year and a half since losing Feynman and now we had just lost Heidi as well. We were back down to a 2 dog family….just Snuffles the oldest and Stitch. I joked about Snuffles was the tank of the family.
Never sick and always steady.
Life went on once again. Stitch grew to love his new sister like none of my furry kids had so far. They were very very close together. They didn’t wrestle or do the corgi evil eye like Feynman and Snuffles (they did once though) but they were best friends.
Just a little over a year from losing Heidi my wife told me we were expecting our first two legged kid. I was thrilled after 6 years of trying, a two legged baby was on the way. I was so happy as I knew Snuffles loved little kids. My wife’s pregnancy went on and my furry kids were going strong until while away on vacation I got a urgent call from my in-laws that something was wrong with Snuffles. After an emergency splenectomy to save Snuffles we got back in town just in time for her to come home. She recovered so quickly but our hopes were quickly dashed with bad news. Snuffles spleen had ruptured because of a tumor that turned out to be angiosarcoma.
Cancer again….to which there was no way we could save her. I was told 18-60 days by a oncologist. 3-6 months with chemo. I couldn’t do that to her unless it was a time frame of saving her for a year or two. So I prayed and prayed that GOD would heal her. Our first hope was she would make Halloween and Thanksgiving, which she did, then thanksgiving. Once Thanksgiving past I told my wife I’m just praying she can make Christmas and the birth of our son. I thought heck this dog is doing so well maybe she can make her b-day 02/17/10 and see 10 years old. What a celebration that would be. It wasn’t meant to be though.
12/13/10 I got home from work and she was just fine begging for food and acting like always This was around 4:15pm. Took her outside around 5:15 and again she was fine. The very next second she was laying on her side and didn’t want to get up. I finally got her inside. Checked her gums and they were very very pale. Rushed her to the vets office and sure enough Snuffles had a mass on her liver that had ruptured. There was no decision for us to make. My first corgi, my first born, my red, was dying. She crossed over at 6:35pm with so much pride and love in her heart. Makes me wished we could all face the end so bravely. She just lay in my arms and feel asleep. This was the 3rd dog I’d lost from cancer in 3 years. I stayed with her a while just looking at her still in shock of what had just happened. Even though I knew from the moment I was told it was cancer that we were on a tight timetable I still wasn’t ready to let her go.
I want to thank GOD for allowing me 2 months and 13 days extra I got to spend with Snuffles…for allowing me to even have Snuffles. I know a lot of people say how lucky their pets are to have them. I considered myself the lucky one with all of them. The last past couple of months I’ve had with Snuffles after her surgery were amazing. It was really nice to get to spend with her knowing what was coming but having her seem health again. At night she would roll around on the floor in front of the fan, she looked and acted so happy. She still begged for food like crazy. She even went to work with me at least twice a week as she was having a lot of problems holding her bladder.
Most of all I want to thank Snuffles for 9 years 10 months of pure friendship and love…..of making me want to be the great person she believes me to be.
I will miss waking up laying next to you every day like we have for almost 10 years.
Snuffles was a incredible corgi. My”red”, my”tank”, my”snuffleupagus”, my first born.
Run free Snuffles and please give a big old corgi kiss to your baby brother Feynman and your little bigger sister Heidi for me. I will miss you until the day you see me crossing that bridge when we will all finally be back together.
I will always love and think of you Snuffles,
| Snuffles |
| 13, Dec 2010 |
| Austin and Jackie |