Taking Our Best Memories Along Part III
With the sale of our house pending, the subject has come up of the bittersweetness of leaving behind a home where we have so many happy memories with so many pets. In the summer of 2014 I completed a project here that was very close to my heart – a memorial garden for all of those pets. I am sad to leave that behind, but I will be taking many parts of it with us, and creating a new garden at our new home.
This trellis holds a tag for each pet that lived with us at our current home but have since passed on. In this series I am sharing about each of those pets and how their memories tie in with our home.
When we left off in Part II….1999 was a rough year full of losses, but bringing new pets into our lives helped with the healing. Our cat Miss Bones (shared in Part I) was killed by our neighbor’s dog at the same time that our dog Shelby was undergoing cancer treatment. One of our other cats, Tasha, had disappeared never to be found before all of that. We knew Shelby would only be with us for so long, and we didn’t want our cat Don Juan to be left alone. Not long after Bones’ death, we headed to our local shelter to find another cat.
We selected Conrad from many cats at the shelter (you can read his story “Our Golden Boy” by clicking the link). Conrad was with us for 16 years, and many of his antics in his later years have been shared on this blog. He left us for the Rainbow Bridge in May of last year and knowing what a good long life he had with us is very comforting.
Shelby passed away in the summer, but I needed time before I was ready for another dog. Not long after my mother’s death in October, a stray cat started hanging around the store where my hubby and I both work. I always felt like my Mom sent him to us to give me a distraction from my grief. Franklin was not with us for long (you can read more of his story in my photo series “Black & White Kitties“); he had many health problems. We always felt good that we had basically given him a home in which to live out what was left of his life. Cancer ultimately took him the following year.
Around the same time that we took Franklin in, we found out about a litter of puppies that had been born and belonged to some customers at the store. We decided we were ready then and Maggie came home with us that Christmas. It was even more fun since my sister and her husband also adopted a dog from the same litter. It was fun to look through Maggie’s early photos, and at the same time see how our house looked back then, since it has been through so many changes over the years.
You can read more about Maggie’s life with us in my photo series part X, “Maggie May“. She was a very special dog, though her life with us was too short. I think I can honestly say that I have really never gotten over her death 12 years ago, I have just learned to live with it. On a brighter note, in my next entry in this series, I will share about how Maggie got a brother and we first became a multiple dog household!
Today we are joining the Thursday Barks & Bytes blog hop. Thank you to our hosts 2 Brown Dawgs blog, and Heart Like a Dog. Please visit other blogs through the links below!
It is nice to look back even if the memories are bittersweet. Thanks for joining the hop!
Love these memories, Jan-and certainly forgot all the changes the house had been through!
Gosh, I think even I had forgotten some of it, until I started looking at the photos!
Memories are always good
Lily & Edward
I love looking back at old photos! I’m loving this series of looking back at all the memories in this house. I can’t imagine what it’s like packing up a house with so many memories. It’s bittersweet packing up our apartment and we’ve only been here for 6 years!
It’s tough, but to be honest, I’m not sure the reality of it all has quite hit me yet! I think I’ve been so caught up in the negotiating, etc., that I just haven’t focused on the actual leaving. It will probably really hit me all at once at some point though; right now I’m just kind of enjoying the looking back.
I think of the quote about our furry friends leaving footprints on our hearts and we are never the same!! So true.
I love the trellis idea. You will always have your memories 🙂
So many pets have come into your lives…leaving so many memories. We’re glad you’re going to be able to take some of those memories to your new home.
This is soo sweet. You have a lot of memories in your home, what a fun thing though to start a new adventure! Moving is certainly bittersweet, i’m not enjoying packing right now.
Believe it or not, I’m actually enjoying the packing! It’s been well over 20 years since I’ve done it, so that probably helps. 🙂 Plus this place needed a cleaning out anyway, so it feels satisfying to finally be doing that.
So many memories inside those walls. ♥ Y’all have done some serious remodeling through the years. I love your kitchen table. ☺
Thank you! I hope when we do decide to get a new one that someone in my family will take the table, it really is still like brand new! We have done a ton of remodeling, and I think we finally just about ran out of things to do. That might be part of the reason we want to move – we enjoy those projects! 🙂
Like Jodi, I love this series! And I love your memorial garden! If I knew I could trust Ducky not to dig it up, I’d start one myself. But having Kissy’s and Callie’s ashes in their “urns” makes me feel like their spirit – which I believe is one in the same – is always close by. Looking forward to the next chapter of this series!
Thank you, Sue! These guys are diggers too, not to mention trompers – LOL – so the garden was in a separate fenced off area!
I’m glad you have your loved ones close to you. ♥
We never knew you had a cat that vanished. Our kitty Tom vanished one evening in 2008, never to be seen by anyone again. It still drives my mom crazy. Katie, Mom and I walked for miles and miles, hours and hours, searching for him but never found a trace. None of the neighbors had seen him either. So very sad when you don’t know what happened.
Having a cat just disappear like that is so, so difficult, as you know. We did the same…walking, searching, putting up posters. We did have someone call us once and say they had seen her; but I’m not sure if they ever really did or not – they never saw her again. It is just so hard to move on when you don’t know what happened, and you keep hoping they still might come home.
What a lot of memories you have in that house and with your pets past and present…….they will stay in your heart as you move and it’s wonderful that you are taking that lovely garden charm with you to the next place……….I know that was tough for me too – I had buried two of my cats in my previous back yard but I had put little concrete statues on their graves – when I moved, I brought the statues with me – I still have them – a bit worse for wear but they are reminders. You will soon be making some NEW memories in the NEW house! Very exciting……………
Pam
I really love this series. I love seeing how different pets at different times affect our lives. Your Maggie May is so beautiful. It sounds like she might have been your heart dog…I know I will struggle when I lose my two. They are both so deeply entwined around my heart.
Thanks for joining the blog hop!
I think you might be right about Maggie being my heart dog. Losing her was so rough on all of us, including Kobi; and there was so much more to the whole story. It’s a story I need to write, though it will be difficult, even if only for myself one of these days.
Such lovely animals and great memories. Thanks for sharing.
You will be taking a lot of wonderful memories along with you to your new home!