Charlotte’s Story of Courage

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlotte was our first born child, and we adopted her when she was 8 weeks old, after doing extensive research on breeders in the area.  We visited her all the time after she was born, when she was too little to come home with us. We loved the hour drive each way, excited to see our baby bulldog, who was named after the spider in Charlotte's Web.  I found that spider to be a loyal, courageous and an endearing friend, a perfect name for our little girl.

Our Charlotte was very silly. She loved sleeping with us, jumping into the bath while I was taking one,  and ALWAYS climbed on my lap in the car...and she was over 40 lbs. !!! We took her on all our vacations and loved walking on the beach with us.  She loved to play tug and had this terrible habit of swallowing my little socks.  She was a "people doggy" and thought she was a person rather than a dog.  She was stubborn at times, but that is her just being a bully.

From the time she was born, she had a weak stomach and vomited a lot. To this day, we believe she was born with the predisposition for cancer.  We had moved to a new home the summer before she died, and were caught up in our new baby and doing renovations in our home...perhaps we didn't notice she was that sick. But we loved her so and took such good care of her.  She was never a great eater, which also makes me think that she was born sick.  However, she loved Frosty Paws...they were her favorite!

Charlotte had this little happy wiggle, even after she had a full day of chemotherapy.  She was just a little lovebug, filled with much love and gave so much love to those around her.  She seemed to sense when I was sad and licked the tears off my face.  When we were sitting on the couch, she would come over to us and put her chin on the couch to be snuggled with.

Beautiful Charlotte died on May 12th, 2005...a few weeks after she turned 3.  She had a quick fight with cancer, and we could never seem to get her into remission for more than a few weeks.  She was diagnosed in February of 2005, and we tried 3 different protocols...each one unsuccessful.  She suffered so much during that time, we found it best to end her suffering in a peaceful, gentle manner. She died in our arms as we whispered to her how much we loved her.  We miss her so much, but feel blessed that we had those short three years with her.  Cancer is a horrific, debilitating disease, and I have seen two individuals, my mother and Charlotte, lose their lives to it.  Perhaps they are playing somewhere together, healthy and at peace.