Other Plans...

I am not sure how else to start this post... but I am sitting down to write about the day and the beautiful little puppy that we did not have the chance to welcome into our family. 

Baxter Gotaas

How the story began... Last Saturday Lars and I went out looking at different shelters to see if there was a puppy for us. This was the first opportunity we had that we both felt ready to go out looking for a dog since we lost Rusty about 6 months ago. We drove up to Brighton, CO to a puppy rescue and when we got there it was closed. So we then drove over to the Dumb Friends League of Denver, but nothing there caught our eyes either. We decided to go check out the new Denver Animal Shelter to see what they had. As we walked through the doors it just seemed right-- we looked through the glass windows at the different dogs they had up for adoption and when we saw Baxter with his momma and two siblings we just fell in love. He had a very timid and shy personality at first, but eventually became very interested in both of us. It was at this time we thought it was the dog for us. We signed all of the paperwork to adopt him that day, but found out that we had to wait almost a week to actually get him since he was not neutered yet. So, we waited and prepared for him. Even our friends helped us prepare for his well anticipated arrival. We went and picked him up from Spay Today yesterday. He was very groggy and sleepy which seemed very normal since he was still coming out of anesthesia. He was just too cute laying around all evening and would curl up in the cutest places. A few hours after he was home he began getting extremely sick-- threw up a lot and had diarrhea, but again we thought that was normal based on what we were told at Spay Today. We stayed up with him most of the night cleaning him up after he would have a sick fit. He finally went to sleep this morning, but that is when he took a turn for the worst. I went in to check on him and he was not doing well at all--I called the vet hospital and took him in right away. The vet had high suspicions he had Parvo and a bad infection that had made its way to his lungs. The vet and her assistants were amazing and walked us through everything. I loved the wording she used--"If it is meant to be, it will be." It was helpful to know that even she understood that he could pull through or he might not, but in my mind only God knew what the outcome was going to be. We ended up having to take him to the Denver Animal Shelter due to the contract we had signed when we bought him, and he took his last breath on our way there. I know in my heart that he is in a better place now and not in any pain and is not suffering. It is just difficult to realize what happened today since he was not even with us for 24 hours.

Thank you to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. And to Julie for being there with us today--we really appreciate how great of a friend you are!! You are a true blessing from God!!