Losing a Best Friend

For the last 3 weeks, our dog, Bristol had been sick. This is one of the two we were left with that made the journey to the Virgin Islands. I got her from the Teton Valley Idaho Humane Society back in 2002 when Shannon and I had just moved in together as Shannon felt left out as she came to me when I had my two boys, Chuck and Blazer. She was 8 months at the time. She fit right in to our home and traveled with us to Reno, Nevada and to here in St Thomas.

After multiple trips to the great Vet we have found here, Dr. Bowden at Imperial Vet, we had narrowed it down to possibly tick fever. She was put on antibiotics, but just wasn't getting better.  I was working at a large resort here selling timeshares, but they were getting tired of me calling in sick to take my baby to the vet, so I resigned.

Bristol's condition kept getting worse, so the next step was to test her for Cushing's Disease, which would be that she would be at the vet all day going through tests. Perfect, the last couple of weeks I had been staying at home with her, she will be at the vet and in good care right?

Off I go fishing with a friend. I turn on the phone later in the afternoon to a voicemail from Shannon saying Bristol had died of Aortic Artery Tear. Yes she bled to death internally from a tear in an artery. If there is any good news of this, it could not have been operated on. I got home and was devastated when I saw Shannon.

Since we are on a small island, none of the crematory here will do a cremation. We had to have her sent via a seaplane to St Croix. We will get her box back soon to add to our collection of four other boxes prominently displayed in our dining room credenza. 

In order to escape of the pain of hanging around the house, we decided to go out to Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost, what better way to mourn than having some painkillers?

Then the next day you go out on the boat over to St. John with some friends so that our remaining girl, Bo Peep can have some fun with her friend Hana.

And a Sunday Birthday BBQ for Tripp.

We are now on the hunt for another rescue lab to fill our house. It will be an adventure going back to the states and bringing a new lab back to paradise! We have been in touch with Lab Rescue of Florida and Atlanta as either Miami or Atlanta will have direct flights to St Thomas. 

Regardless, Bristol, you are deeply missed and you will always have a special spot in our hearts!