Until The Next Time We Meet

My beautiful Bell, always staying strong.

I thought a long time on how to do this blog post.

Four days later and I still have no idea.

I'm sad to announce that my Bell has passed away on the 21st of December, four days before Christmas.

We came home from our grandma's place and there she was, hard and cold in her house.

Bell never had an easy life, she was always sick with some way or another.

She had a lifelong skin disease accompanied by problems with her reproductive system requiring surgery, maggots and finally, cancer.

Among all my dogs, she had the most frequent visit to the veterinary clinic until all the workers there know her by name.

However, she always stayed strong and passed through every single challenge like a champion.

Bell with Able when we were moving things into the car because we were moving houses.

The dogs seem to know we were moving and instantly jumped onto the car as if they were afraid that they would be left behind.

How could we leave these cuties behind?

There were a few times before this when I was convinced I was going to wake up and she would be dead.

Especially when she had to cut out the tumor in her mouth for the first time, that was when I thought she was going to die.

I even thought sometimes, how would I write a long eulogy to honor her.

However, each time she triumphs over her sickness and emerges as a healthy, happy dog again before of course, another round of disease attacks.

Bell when she was still in her young and healthy days (look at her beautiful fur!)

She would still fight over a cloth with Marley.

and look at Marley's now non-existant waistline !

There is no way to escape death.

She escaped death a few times but finally this time, it was time for her to leave.

She had to leave for good because she was in a lot of pain although she could not say anything to voice out her discomfort.

Even humans suffer severe pains during the last stage of cancer, what about dogs?

During the last of her days, she barely ate and only live on a bowl of milk daily (which she refuses to  drink sometimes due to her mouth cancer).

When it was very close to the end, she couldn't walk anymore.

So, it's for the better for her to leave.

Only by looking at this picture carefully did I realise how much Bell has aged throughout the years without me realising.

How beautiful her coat of fur used to be and how lively her expression was.

Those were the glorious days of her life when she could run around whenever she liked and bark at cats.

I will always remember her as a strong, passionate dog.

She was always the smartest dog of the family (tho there wasn't much of a competition with Marls and Able). When we used to live in our old house, she would allow people to look and admire the flowers outside our house but once anyone touches the flowers, she would start barking like mad.

That's how smart she was.

She knows how to open the cage door with her snout and she remains to be the only dog who can do so in my household.

She would bark at me if I was too slow to serve her dinner because she knew her position as the queen of the dogs.

She was just such a wonderful dog and companion to have and I'm so thankful to have had her by my side as I grew up.

She came into my life when I was barely six and now I'm going on to seventeen soon.

She watched me grow up and gave us all a sense of security just by being herself.

A picture of Bell on my bedside table.

I will always miss her even if years have passed.

But I believe we will meet again someday, somehow.

Until then, I hope she's happy chasing cats in heaven.