r/scottishterriers • u/Juubi217 • 6h ago
In loving memory of Joy
Well, I hoped I wouldn’t be back to post a tragedy again so soon after the last one, but here we are. At the start of the month, we had to say goodbye to Joy, aka Jojo, the sweetest girl in the world.
When we first got her, the adoption agency originally showed us just her, but when they mentioned that one of her puppies was still there as well, we insisted on getting them both. We weren’t about to split up a family, which is how we welcomed her and Baba into our family.
It took a little while to recover from the trauma of being used as a breeder by an unlicensed backyard breeder, who likely didn’t treat her or her puppies very well. Once she did warm up to us, she was the greatest. She would hop around constantly, often to the point where all four of her legs were off the ground, just like a little rabbit. That’s actually what led to us giving her the nickname “Jojo Rabbit”. She loved cuddles, pets, anything she could eat (with beef being her absolute favorite), and going out for walks. In the rare instances where we walked the whole pack at once, her tail wouldn’t stop wagging.
Of course, as a Scottie, she was quite the little hunter, and went after any animal she saw, regardless of size. We had to keep her away from other dogs out of fear of what she would do to them. I also recall several instances where she went charging out into the backyard, she would bark into the neighborhood letting everyone know she was the boss. Of course, any deer that were around saw her barking at them from inside the fence, and were completely unfazed by her, and just went back to grazing.
Speaking of grazing, Jojo and Baba loved eating grass, and I have no idea why. Sadly though, this may have contributed to the cancer they both received, given the area we live uses nasty chemicals on the grass and that bleed into the whole neighborhood. Back in July we lost Baba, and Jojo spent many nights waiting for him to come to bed, wondering where he went. This past couple of months she was going downhill herself. We had blood tests run on her but it took an ultrasound, biopsy, and x-ray to tell that she had a rare, very aggressive cancer. But by the time we diagnosed the problem, it had already spread from her spleen to her liver, lungs, and lymph nodes. There was nothing we could do but keep her comfortable. She wouldn’t eat for the last couple of days, which was her telling us she wanted to go. So we let her go, and the house feels so much more empty.
Losing one dog in a year is bad, but two is pure torture. Now the only one of the pack left is Wiley, I can only wonder how he will react to suddenly being all alone.
Good night, sweet girl. Say hello to your baby for us. He’s waiting for you on the other side of the rainbow bridge…
