Your Pet Loss Stories

'My Boxer Girl - 'Holly Boo Boos'

by Christine Helen Sznurfeil
(Chorley, Lancashire, UK)

My beautiful Holly Boo Boos, she got the boo boos bit after my eldest son called her that and it stuck, she was a funny girl, and loved sneaking up on the sofa when she thought no one was looking.

She was a brindle boxer with a black muzzle and a white flash on her head, and four white feet. She was small for a boxer but that's because she was the runt of the litter, but more than made up for it with her big bouncy character. Her two favourite things were her tennis ball and her red frisby.

Holly was my best friend, she loved the walks on the beach and running into the surf, often she refused to come out and we took home a very soggy boxer girl.

One morning she climbed up onto the sofa and looked at me with eyes that said 'I'm tired'. She always had that look in her eyes on the sofa, I swear she knew she could soft soap us so we left her there, it was one of her favourite places.

She got very tired some days and others she would chase poor old Tigger the cat, she had a couple of days where she just stayed in her bed and didnt seem interested in much, if I mentioned the vet, she perked up, but I did see a change in her, we put it down to her being blind in one eye and her old age.

A few weeks later she came and looked at me with an expression that I hadnt seen before, I followed her to the couch and she climbed up onto it. I knew that something was very wrong as she just laid there. I talked to her and got no reaction of sorts, and then she had a fit of some sort, her poor body shook and I screamed and picked her up, she stopped shaking and she stared at me with eyes that said ,"Mum please I'm hurting and very tired, I know you love me but it's my time".

I knew that after ten years with my beautiful girl it was going to be the hardest day of my life. So we took her to the vets and he told us she had had a stroke and he couldn't do anything for her, and with those dreaded words I knew I had to do the best for my beautiful girl Holly Boo Boos we knew we had to let her go.

I held her tight and told her how much I loved her, told her she was my soul mate, my protector, my baby. She opened her eyes and gave me a look that said 'thank you mum', she closed those big beautiful brown eyes, I swear that I saw a tear fall from her eyes, she took her last breath and then she was gone. My heart grew so heavy and my tears flowed, and I stayed with her for a while, we brought her home.

Everyone said their good-byes to our fun loving clown of ten wonderful years, she was cremated and her ashes scattered in the wind on the sea shore.

Its now been six weeks since she left us for rainbow bridge and the pain is so intense, the tears flow like rain showers most days, but I will never forget my Holly Boo Boos, her friend Sheba went to join her after four weeks, I guess she missed her so much and needed to be with Holly.

We took her to the vets and he said she was pining for Holly, we tried everything to help her come to terms with losing her buddy whom she had been with for eight years, she didnt know what to do without her. All Sheba wanted to do was sit on our bed and sleep, she refused to eat no matter what we gave her. She loved chicken but even that didnt work, we tried so hard to give her extra love and kisses, we knew she was so sad and lonely without her best friend, all we could do was to hope that she would get better with time.

She took to sleeping on the landing or in the bedroom at the side of the bed. I didn't mind I knew she needed to be near us, but one morning we woke up and we found she had sneaked into our bedroom again and settled down by my side, I thought she was sleeping but she didn't move when I called her. I jumped out of bed lifted her head up her eyes were closed she had gone in the night, and no one knew, it broke my heart that she went without giving us a chance to say good-bye, but perhaps she wanted it that way. Maybe she didn't want us to see her go but she wanted just to go quietly.

She was a beautiful dog, she had so much energy and was a perfect companion, she protected me when we went out for walks. I loved her so much, it was a puzzle why she died, we think she missed Holly Boo Boos and just couldn't cope without her friend. Both of them gave us so much love, we are heart-broken at the loss of both of them, but I guess they needed each other too.