Pete & Gracie (& Riley).
I went home to Massillon this weekend, and as usual, took tons of photos of the dogs. I don’t think I’ve ever written about how they came to be a part of the family, so I thought I would share their story.
We got Gracie in March of my freshman year of college (2003), along with her brother, Riley. We were originally going to just take home Riley because we wanted a brown and black puppy, but I wanted to get another one because two puppies are more fun than one (and Gracie was very sweet). So we ended up getting both.
They were best friends. As you can see in the photos, they loved to play and when they slept, they would lay their heads on each other and cuddle.
In April of that year, the puppies were playing, and Gracie somehow got her mouth caught on Riley’s collar. Gracie was trying furiously to become untangled and pull away, and in doing so, she was choking Riley. My dad tried to unhook them, and when he finally did, Riley was in pretty bad shape– he was having trouble breathing and his whole front was wet with saliva. We rushed him to the emergency animal hospital where they put him in a little oxygen tent for the night, and I really thought he would be okay. But the next day, they called us and told us to hurry over if we wanted to say goodbye to him. By the time we got there, he had died. Riley had aspirated into his lungs and it was just too much for him. I was heartbroken. He was still such a tiny, little puppy– too sweet and young to die. That night, Gracie slept by herself in her crate with her little rabbit toy.
A little while after that, my parents decided to get another puppy because Gracie was so lonely. So they got Pete. He was a Lhasa Apso too, and looked a lot like Riley, except he was younger and smaller.
We love Pete and Gracie, and all of the dogs we’ve had. They become such a part of the family, and its so sad when something happens to them.
Here are a couple photos from the weekend:
Gracie and her bone.
After dinner, Pete will jump up on one of the chairs and eyeball the leftover food. But he knows better than to snatch anything. (When we got Pete, he was the color that Riley is in the first photo, but his fur lightened up as he’s gotten older).