Tribute to Skyler Cleet - 2/5/05

Tonight, around 8:30, My little Sky Girl's heart gave out.  She passed away quickly.  Although I knew this was coming, with her cardiomyopothy, her trips to emergency vets, and stays in the hospitals, it is never easy to let go.  But she did not suffer.

Skyler has had a wonderful life with me.  She got to travel when I had the motorhome up north, came to Florida with me when I came down last March, and then back again for good when we moved here.  She's had road trips here with me, has gone to the Doggie park which she just loved, met and made great human and dog friends there.  Everyone would look out for her, as they knew about her bad heart.  We would go to the Dog Beach in Venice at least 2 times a week, and she romped and splashed in the waves.  This was one very spoiled little girl.  And she well deserved all the attention she had.  She loved to sit on anyone's lap, at the park, the beach, in the house, and just look at you with those beautiful, big, almost black eyes.  She would climb on the tables at the park and sit next to anyone sitting there and just cuddle.
Skyler did not have one mean bone in her body.  She got used to taking her 3 x's a day medication, and would love it when I said "Cream Cheese Time".  For she knew she would get a bite of cream cheese, not knowing that her medication was in it.  She was also recently getting medication 6 x's a day for her eye.  She had a visit to a specialist two weeks ago in Ft. Myers for that, and it was getting better...In fact, I looked at her tonight when I put the ointment and drops in and told her how good it was starting to look, and then two hours later, she was gone.
As some of you know, I adopted Skyler from BAR, she was my foster.  She came from a shelter in Long Island, very sick, with a 105 fever, kennel cough, mange, and just a skinny mess.  I couldn't let her go.  I had to keep her...She fit right in my home with Bugsy and Hunter.  She paid no attention to the cats at all from the day she came to me. 
There isn't enough words for me to express how much I loved this little girl.  I would always call her "My Sky Girl".  She will be missed very much.
I took her body to an emergency vet nearby tonight and she will be back with me in a couple of weeks, to be placed beside my Caesar.  I still cannot let her go, as I could not let Caesar go either.  They will always be with me. 
She didn't want to leave me, the Vet's at Cornell, and Florida Speciality Vet Clinic in Tampa said. She was such a trooper and fighter.  She just didn't want to go.  So, she fought and lived a few more months since her last episode in November, and a lot longer since her first collapse last March.
I want to thank you, Tina, for letting me adopt Skyler back in October of 2003.  And Gary, for finding her in that Long Island Shelter.  Ironically, I was just doing "emergency" fostering at that time, and she was an emergency, as most are, but she was to be euthanized that coming Tuesday, if we didn't take her.  I am so grateful that I did take her as a foster, and so very grateful to BAR for allowing me to have this past 14 months with her.
Hunter and Bugsy know something is different this time.  They were both here when she came over to the couch where I was lying down, and gave a gasp and was gone.
 
Goodbye, My little Special Sky Girl.  You will truly be missed by all. You were and always will be so very special to me.