They are meant to live forever…

January 3, 2018 By erinison

Life can be so cruel. I can’t believe here I am, 4 months after losing Leia, that I’m now paying tribute to our beautiful Sally “Wally Wals” Ison. Our beautiful sisters. The ones responsible for all this.

On the Thursday before Christmas, Sally was devastatingly diagnosed with Lymphoma. The vet informed us she had 4 to 8 weeks to live. We never had the chance with Leia to do her favourite things before she passed. In this sad time, we were thankful to be given an opportunity to make that up and give Sally some great days doing her favourite things. These things included snacks (she was a beagle after all), the beach and running the car.

Unfortunately, the universe had other ideas. We were fortunate that we were able to take Sally to the beach on Christmas eve with her friends, and Christmas Day with her pack. During Christmas day, Sally deteriorated. I was hoping she was just not happy with the approaching storms on Christmas night. Wouldn’t it have been nice if that was the case.

At midnight, she woke me up panting and trembling, and I knew what this meant, but I didn’t want to believe it. I just couldn’t believe after 4 months, we were going through the exact same thing. I tried to offer her food to take a pain killer, but she turned her nose up. We wanted to say goodbye to Sally at home, surrounded by her family, but that wasn’t meant to be.

If I had of known we had days, not weeks, I wouldn’t have let you go. I would have hugged you and kissed you endlessly so you knew how much we loved you.

Sally was the beautiful, dignified lady of our pack. She was top dog and led the morning chorus for breakfast, was always first off lead at the beach, loved her toys, and as each new generation of Asalei beagles was introduced, she was first to teach them manners.

She was a loved member of the family and she will be greatly missed.