Saturday, June 20, 2009

the Rainbow bridge gang...




A friend of mine pointed out that I was missing a picture & bio on our "Pete" who passed away in 2006. Made me think I should write a little about the ones who filled our lives & hearts but are now gone.

"Pete" was a large hampshire pig who came here at the age of 10yrs. His previous owner had him from a baby but when she lost her farm he had to be placed. Pete came here in the spring of 2005. We were hoping he would get along with Forrest & Earl , share their house & space but it was not to be! I think the "youngsters" annoyed him & with his large , sharp tusks he let them know this, causing many nasty wounds!
 We ended up building him his own house & paddock area plus he shared the forest when the boys were not in there. 
Pete (like most big pigs his age) suffered from arthritis & had trouble getting to his feet most mornings. One day he got stuck in a mud hole during 30c weather & by the time I found him (I assumed he was in the cool forest as he usually would do) he had heat stroke. Somehow I managed to cool him down with cold , wet towels & got him back to his house. By the next day he was unable to even stand, had lost control of his bladder/bowels & would not eat. After much soul searching we knew it was time to call the vet. Pete went to rainbow bridge in July 2006 at the age of 11 yrs old. He is buried by the apple tree on our property. We only had Pete here for a little over a year but it hit us hard as we hoped we would have a good long time together.
Butch ( I talked about briefly in a previous post) came with his brother Sunny, shortly after we moved here. He was the tough guy of the 2 ! When he started not wanting food we knew something was wrong. Tests done in Guelph confirmed cancer (probably of the gallbladder & beyond) & the prognosis was grim....we opted to have him euthanized. Butch has his spot by the apple tree as well.
Last summer our Sheperd cross 10 yr dog Buddy stopped eating...lost a great amount of weight in a short period of time. The blood work from the vet showed leukemia. The vet came out to our house so Buddy could pass to Rainbow Bridge in our arms. 
Hopefully I will not have to add to this list anytime soon....

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