Come Meet My Pets! (Part 1)

Hello! Today I will introduce my pets- both past and present ( don’t worry, there’s only 4).

We will start with my first significant pet ever (and the one with the biggest impact)- my dog Tango. I had hermit crabs and a lizard and animals like that earlier in my life because my brother was allergic, but I ALWAYS wanted a dog. And more specifically a corgi. In September 2007 my wish finally came true. I was 14 and really starting to go downhill with my depression. My mom was willing to try anything, and one day after school we went to the Boulder Humane Society. I had no idea what was happening until we were basically in the building. We went into a little room and they brought in this little corgi. He was roughly 10 months old, and was found basically abandoned in Kansas. As soon as I saw this little dog, I knew he was meant to be mine. He was full grown (I would kill to have seen him as a puppy!) and had the name Chester. Needless to say we left the humane society with a corgi. He absolutely did not fit the name Chester, so my mom just had me list off names from movies and TV shows that I liked. At the time I was really into Ghost Hunters, and there is guy on the show named Dave Tango. Chester became Tango in that moment and we never looked back.

He was clearly abused before he was found. He was scared of anything that you could smack him with (shoes, wrapping paper rolls, ect) but ESPECIALLY fly swatters. I worked and worked with him to help get him over these fears- and I succeeded in everything but that damn fly swatter. He was an absolutely fantastic dog. He learned really quickly, rarely had any accidents, never jumped on anybody, was a very quiet dog.

When I was 16, my depression hit an all time low. I was pulled out of school and I was still trying to find an anti depressant that worked. One day, it was like this fog came over me. Almost like I wasn’t in my body anymore. I was done, I wanted to die and I couldn’t stop it. I was about to take an entire bottle of sleeping pills, when Tango started barking and scratching at my closed bedroom door. He was going absolutely ballistic and that was NOT him at all. That snapped me out of that fog, and I let him in and he jumped on my bed and basically sat on me until my mom came home. That was the day that little corgi named Tango saved my life, and he continued to protect me until he died. He and my other dog Diggory were even in my wedding! (More on Diggory in part 2)

My and my husband moved to Florida in 2015, and that year we started to notice that Tango would sometimes drag his back left leg. By 2016, he wasn’t using that leg at all. It didn’t stop him, and he wasn’t in any pain. We built him a little wheelchair that he would sometimes use. He couldn’t do stairs anymore and hated being carried, but we figured it out. We moved back to Colorado in January of 2017 and until we had enough saved up to get an apartment in the Denver suburbs, we had to stay with family. By around May, he couldn’t use either of his back legs. He was diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy- basically where they become paralyzed starting from the back and moving up. Unfortunately, this is a death sentence. He still had a very strong will to live, was eating, and playing, so we still had some time. At this time, he was staying with a friend who actually had experience with this disease and was watching him until we got an apartment. He was in a wheelchair basically all the time now, but he seemed to enjoy it. We finally found an apartment in October and moved in. At this point, we had to express his bladder for him but he still seemed happy. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long. By December he stopped wanting to go in his wheelchair for walks to to play. We were in constant contact with his vet and we agreed that his quality of life was declining rapidly. After the new year, all he did was lay on his little pad/blanket and watch us. He wasn’t interested in playing, in moving, and the worst part- he didn’t want to eat much. At this point, I had to make what was probably the hardest decision in my life- to humanly euthanize him. It wasn’t an immediately needed, so we were able to pick a date. On January 13th, Tango slept next to me on my bed- his final night. On January 14 we had a vet come to our house and Tango died in my arms, surrounded by people who loved him. He was 11 years old.

I’m 100% certain that dogs can communicate with each other. Our other dog Diggory had to inspect the vet, sniff in his bag, the whole thing. And ever since then Diggs has been my protector. Tango told him he had to take care of me, and he is.

I really struggled with the decision of putting Tango down. Did I do the right thing? Could I have had done something to extend his life? Was he ok? So I asked the universe. I spoke out to Tango, and just asked him for a sign. The next day it snowed a foot. Here’s why I took that as a sign. Tango absolutely LOVED to snow. You basically had to drag him inside. The second thing- there was no snow in the forecast. Yes, it was January in Colorado…but it was in the 50’s the day before and there wasn’t even a hint of snow in the forecast and I wake up the day after I asked Tango to send me a sign if he was ok to a unforecasted foot of snow. I knew then that I made the right decision and he’s ok.

We’re coming up on the 5th anniversary of his death, and honestly I still struggle with it. He was my soul mate dog and I don’t think that’s something you really get over.

Stay tuned for Part 2!