~Goodbye old pal - Jan. 2012

Cooper, the best dog in the world, met his maker after nine wonderful years of life. Right after Christmas Cooper got really sick. We took him to the vet only to find that his hip dysplasia had gotten worse and that he had arthritis all over his spine and in all his shoulders. It was heartbreaking to watch his health deteriorate over the last month of his life. Even the steroids, antibiotics and pain killers couldn't help him towards the end. He stopped eating and drinking and could barely walk. We knew that it was time for Cooper to go. The boys have never known life without Coop. When we decided it was time to put him down, Adam gave a wonderful FHE lesson on what happens with the body and the spirit when something living dies. It was pretty emotional. There were tears shed by every member of the family that night as we prepared to say goodbye to our dear friend. A week later Cooper died very peacefully at the vet's office.

Some of my favorite pictures of Cooper.
Coops favorite past time...sleeping!

The day before Cooper died...you can see his shoulder out of place. Poor dog.

I felt a little silly the night Cooper died. I cried the whole time at the vet's office and on the way home (I tried to blame it on being 9 months preg, but I knew better...I loved Cooper). I didn't realize how attached I was to our sweet dog. The vet's office was really nice and made a paw print for us to take home, plus gave us Coops collar and tags. They were also very careful about wrapping Cooper so we could take care of his body.



One thing that's interesting about Alaska is that you can't bury anything in the winter. The ground is too hard (frozen). So you either have to wait til the summer when the ground has thawed or cremate the body. We chose to have Cooper cremated. I'm not a fan of that, but I also didn't want Coopers body in our shed for the next 4 months. I'd hate for the boys to find it. The day after Cooper died, Adam took the body to the bureau dog shelter and they disposed of it.

Several days after Coops death, the boys (especially Simon) had questions about Cooper and heaven. Simon was very sweet one day and asked if Jesus would get the thorns out of Coopers paw when his feet hurt. We had some great gospel discussions.


There are still times when I think about Cooper and all his funny ways. We miss our dear friend.