Sydney “Mae” was found at an animal shelter in Columbia, South Carolina in the fall of 1995. I was only 24 years old. My intentions were to buy a puppy, but it didn’t turn out that way. The second she jumped up on me, digging her claws into my chest, her big brown eyes gazing deep into mine, I was a goner. The shelter told me that she was found wandering outside someone’s barn the day before. She had just given birth to puppies, but they were unable to locate them. Convincing myself this sweet dog was under my apartment’s 20 lb weight limit, I took her home that day.This $68 stray dog would soon turn into a $1000 stray after the vet bills to treat her heart worms, ear infections, drain for her infected mammary gland, etc. But I didn’t care because I was madly in love. I carried her up and down three flights of stairs for weeks until she was strong enough to do it herself.
My family used to kid me and say that Sydney was like a mother to me. Through the many years we had together, I can’t count the number of times this dog watched over me and licked the tears from my face after breakups, illnesses, moves across the country, job changes, etc.
More that ten years later, I finally figured I would probably NEVER find the right guy, so I decided to adopt my little girl from China. When we got home from China, L was 18 months old. Sydney would follow her around to make sure she didn’t get into any trouble. There were a couple times in the morning when my daughter would wake up crying. Exhausted, and not wanting to get up, I would lay there until Sydney would saunter into my room and look at me irritated as if to say, “Hey! Your baby is crying, go do something!”
Sydney was so happy when I did finally got married. She fell madly in love with my husband who seemed to know the exact spot on her ears to scratch. Sometimes she would bark non-stop at him until he would start scratching her again. Sydney was getting old and her joints became stiff. Walks became difficult as she would move too slow to keep up with our new puppy Oliver. She wasn’t interested in sprinting, but wanted to take her time to smell every blade of grass. Our car rides became fewer, as she could no longer jump into the car, and she was too heavy for me to carry easily. When she would go with us, she would no longer happily hang her head out the window, but hang it low trying concentrate on not falling off the seat. When I would take Oliver to pick up our daughter from school, she would stare out the front door window longingly with her soft ,gray masked face.
On her last day, one of my most difficult days, I knew she was ready to go. Three days previous, Sydney lost the ability to get up from laying down without severe pain. My husband and I would have pick her up to take her outside to relieve herself or move her into our bedroom to sleep. I called the vet and they told me to bring her right away.I took this picture a few minutes before we left so that I could remember her sweet face. As I laid on the tile floor staring into her eyes, I knew she was saying, “I know you’ll be okay now, so I’m ready to go.”
The day after Thanksgiving, November 26th, 2010 at 1:26pm, Sydney “Mae” passed away in my arms. My cheek pressed firmly to the top of her head, the only thing between us were my tears as we laid together on the vet floor. I could feel her soft head slowly relax between her paws into a deep, peaceful sleep.
