Snickers

This is a picture of Snickers. She is Cassi's (my sister) dog. Snickers passed away on December 28th.
Back in 1999, Lew and I had adopted Hewie and Dewie. We took them with us every where we went. On a family camping trip, a neighboring camper had a loud snore. It sounded like a bear. My dogs would not stop barking. Around 2 am, my mom and I drove them from Mt. Pleasant to home in West Valley. Cassi had thought, "Geeze, dogs are a lot of work. I don't think I'm getting one for a long time!" Well little Milo and Snickers melted her heart. The above picture is the first time Snickers came to visit our house. Look how tiny she is!
All four of our dogs became fast friends. In this picture is Hewie, Milo, Snickers and Dewie.

One of my favorite things about Snickers is that she would howl. And it wasn't just anytime. It was when you would howl first and then she would join in. This is a picture of Cassi and Scott howling with Snickers.

Snickers got along well with Hewie. Well, she got along with any dog (minus Koko, but I blame it all on Koko). Snickers and Hewie really liked to kiss each other. It was so cute, they would sniff each others faces and then just start licking!

Before we had kids, Lew and I, Cassi and Scott and a few other couples would go out every Friday and Saturday night. We would always bring our dogs to the other ones house so they could play while we were gone. One summer we had noticed that we would have holes dug in our flower beds and trees? We couldn't figure out why our dogs would do this when they had friends over? Rebels! So one night Lew and I set up the video camera before we left. A few minutes into the video there is Snickers sniffing past the tree. Few minutes later a scratch here, a scratch there. It was so hilarious to see her so innocently digging holes all over!

Another thing I love, is that Snickers would always want to be loved. Some dogs like to be alone, some love to run around, Snickers loved to be loved. She would sit next to you, and anytime you stopped scratching or rubbing, she would reach out an arm and give you a reminder scratch that you were not finished.

Snickers loves to lick. She would lick her arms all day. Really. Cassi had to talk to the vet about her constant licking. Snickers even lost hair on her arms. She also liked to lick the air. And she loved to give kisses. If she could get someone to hold still, she would lick for hours.

Back in July/August, Cassi had noticed that Snickers was breathing really loud. When she would sniff you could hear it. After multiple trips and tests to the vet it was discovered that she had a tumor in her nose. Unfortunately, it could not be surgically removed. The only option was for chemo. This is a costly process for people and dogs. But Cassi and Scott wanted to do everything they could to save her. For some reason, dogs respond really well to chemo. They don't get as sick, or loose hair. Snickers was doing really good. She only threw up once. The cancer went into remission, but it was too aggressive and returned during her chemo treatments. Over the past few weeks she was deteriorating. Snickers could not sleep because the tumor was too large. It would block her airway and she would wake up gasping. She could not eat well, and was loosing weight. Cassi and Scott had to make the difficult, but humane and honorable decision to put her to sleep. It's so heart wrenching to see a dog so sick. Snickers was such a good dog. She had such a sweet heart. I know our family will truly miss her. I will miss hearing her scratch and bark at my door announcing the Horrocks family arrival. I do believe that dogs go to heaven. Almost three years ago, my Hewie died. She now has a friend to play with. Love you Snicker Nick.