It’s been a stressful year with working on my degree, Holly breaking her elbow, and losing Cali. We thought that Sydney was having a hard time dealing with not having a friend. And, I think after Sydney, we’re clearly a two dog family.

We’ve loved the Samoyed breed and really miss some common Samoyed characteristics that we’ve had in the house for 12 years. I know we’re not ever going to replace Cali, but we thought that getting another Samoyed would make us happy and give Sydney a familiar-ish playmate.

So, we started talking to breeders.
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In the August 2009 issue of The Equiery magazine, Holly placed a memorial ad with some of the most beautiful words I’ve read: “You were our companion, playmate, deputy and shower guardian. May you forever play the tree game in the wind. Woo-woo-woo.”

I can’t read that without crying. Cali as a special girl and we’ll always miss her. I love you, Holly.

I miss you greeting me at the door when I get home, girl.

For those that haven’t heard yet, Holly had an incident with her elbow in February of this year (2009). Before now, I had shared these posts privately amongst close family/friends. But now that we know that everything turned out fine, Holly is OK to make them more public.

Check out the Holly Elbow09 section of this site. It’s probably best to start at the first post and work your way backwards.

It was December, 1997. Holly and I had been married for just about six months and Holly tells me she wants to get a dog. A samoyed, in fact. I told her I wasn’t ready for a dog — I wasn’t ready to give up some of the freedoms I enjoyed not having the responsibility of taking care of a dog (feeding, walking, watching, …).

Lucky for me, I was vetoed. Holly insisted we get a dog and we went to a breeder to look at the new puppies. That’s when we found Cali. Who knew how much happiness that beautiful fluffball would bring to Holly and I and anyone that ever came in contact with her.

A couple weeks ago Cali stopped eating. A lot was going on at our house with Holly traveling and me traveling and it’s not too uncommon for Cali to get stressed and not eat as much as normal. But she was hardly eating at all. We started to get concerned and took her to the vet.
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I haven’t posted any updates lately because there haven’t been any except for one: Holly’s back on the horse. She’s been working with Moose to get her balance back by walking Moose around the field. Life seems to be getting more normal with each day.

Yay, Holly!