Willie



For our Willie: 5/7/89 to 1/19/00

Willie was born on May 7, 1989, our daughter Christies's 20th birthday. We had the pleasure of delivering 5 Boston Terrier puppies. My Mom has their mother, Prissy ...Buster's sister. I was like the midwife, a job that certainly will wear a person out, my husband and Mom helped with the after breathing details. I had to give CPR to the first, via the phone with my husband and the veterinarian. What a true life experience to know that if I messed this up that someone might die! But after a very long couple of trying minutes...she started breathing. So, the first puppy got my nickname and the last, of course, was Jonny 5. But number 2... was Willie...the white-faced Boston Terrier... and that is just a no-no in the breed circles. He was what is known as a mismark...but what personality...no one told him!

He had many nicknames: Easter Swollie (he let me dress him up as the Easter bunny), Cootie Van, Stinky, Brave Boy(because last March when he lost his eye...our daughter and he were both very BRAVE), Beautiful Boy(it didn't matter to him he only had 1 eye), Wilbur Force. Willie's, Uncle Buster left us at the end of October of 1999 that still has us reeling. Buster's star is on page 29. We still have brother...Jonny 5. Prissy only did this once as she just "wasn't cut out for bein' a Mom".

There are so many events in our lives that we share with our animals, as does anyone who spends the time and develops a relationship with them. The one thing that ALL the boyz and cousin Bailey liked to do in the summer was to jump in their kiddie swimming pool and DIVE for toys. The whole bunch of them just loved that. Willie was the most timid about it, but he would get BRAVE and DIVE for his toy no matter what! I feel sad that this last year with all that happened that we did not get them their kiddie pool.

This past Christmas was exciting for him as we let him tear open his Christmas gift in the morning. Everyone, including Jonny 5 and cousin Bailey just watched in amazement... how excited he was! He just ripped that present open and boy was he pooped at the end of the day.

Our Willie had lost an eye in a freak accident this past year and had been a real trooper on relearning how to get around. As his other eye started clouding from a cataract he was amazing as far as knowing where he was and where he needed to go, sometimes forgetting that he could not see clearly.

Two weeks after Buster passed away Willie started having severe seizures...after many trials we were finally able to control the seizures with Pheno Barbital and Willie had been seizure free since a week after they started in the beginning of November 1999. We still do not know what caused these...but our veterinarian felt they were caused by a short in the brain, he felt had it been a brain tumor the medication would not have helped stop them. Well...we are not going to have an autopsy but it looks like he might have had a seizure and not come out it. An autopsy won't bring him back. His little kennel was still nice and neat, my husband who had called me at work broken down, said it did not look like he had thrashed around. I will be forever remorseful that we were not there for him but I feel the last 2 months were a gift for him and us, he knew how much we all loved him.

I know I should be thankful that he left us without becoming so disabled that we would have to make a decision like we did with Uncle Buster but I guess I'm just being selfish ...as I wasn't ready for him to leave us. He most certainly brought much joy into our life through his life! But it seems like it was just a "blink" ago that he was born. We helped bring him into the world over 10 years ago, and as much as I don't want to say this, I wanted to be there for him when he left.

I miss all the sounds of the CROWD greeting us when we come home. And all the sounds at night while we are sleeping, as of course, they sleep in our bed too! Everyone had their SPOT and that was ONLY their spot no one else's.

Willie, like many of our other life long companions, may not be here in body but most definitely in our hearts!

Suzanne, Michael and Christie Clark