Missing my heart dog so figured I would share Skully here
My best friend crossed over on Friday May 8th & I feel completely lost without her 😞
Skully was the first dog I ever got on my own not living w/ my mom when I was younger. I was 23 and working at a dog daycare. I actually had 2 young litter mate cats at the time (my first cats ever in life) and I realized it may be the perfect time to get a dog so I could bring it to work with me and socialize it from a young age. I figured since it would be my first time integrating cats w/ a dog it may be good for me to get a puppy to make sure I raised it to be respectful of the cats.
Skully was about 8 weeks old when I met her at the AZ humane society. She was the first of 3 litter mate puppies that came running up to me in the kennel when I walked up to it. After that they brought all of them individually into a room to meet me one-on-one. When they brought Skully in she pranced right up to me and immediately sat in my lap. I knew she was the one & that I had been chosen. She came home w/ me that day. She was named Skully after the X files but I spelled it different than in the show because she had such a big pitty head as a baby lol.
She started coming to work w/ me after she was old enough to have all of her vaccines. She had soooo much energy lol, I’m glad I had that job as one outlet for her but I had to get a separate trainer too. It was my first time really learning how to be a good dog parent. I moved to the PNW when Skully was about to turn 2 & continued to have dog related jobs for the next 7-8 years or so. For some of those years I lived with an ex who was a dog trainer & had 2 dogs as well, so Skully made lots of friends. Skully went on some epic hikes & learned that she loved swimming. She was pretty good at jumping and catching frisbees mid air back in her prime. She helped be a mama to some foster puppies back in the day and honestly got along with almost every dog she met. She would often modify her play style depending on the dog she was playing with. She had a few little quirks but to me she was perfect.
After a while one of the cats sadly passed from cancer at a young age and eventually it was just me, Skully and the remaining orange tabby Flapjack when my ex moved out with their dogs a few years later. I was still doing a little bit of pet sitting by then but not nearly as much & no longer working at dog daycares. She still got to see some of her good friends but it was a time of when Skully, Flapjack and I got to be an even more tightly knit little family.
Poor girl dealt w/ numerous health issues in her later years. She beat 2 different types of cancer that never popped up again, only to have a totally different type of liver tumor pop up when she was a little over 11. She was older by that point & not the best candidate for big surgeries again, she’d already been through a lot. The liver tumor wasn’t a type of cancer that spread, just got larger over time and eventually would cause issues. I started taking her to physical therapy in her older age to help maintain her mobility the best we could.
I wasn’t sure how long we would get together, and then we unexpectedly lost the kitty Flapjack in June of last summer to kidney lymphoma that popped up suddenly 😞 Skully and I got almost 2 more years together post her liver tumor diagnosis, she was a trooper & stayed by me for as long as she could but developed other health issues too as she was aging so it was finally time.
I’m so used to her being by my side from the age of 23 to now being 36, I miss her more than words can describe. Figured I’d seen some people post their pitties that crossed over on here so I decided to share the magnificence that is Skully.