A Christmas Miracle

As you all know, I'm quite the animal freak. I think it all started back years ago when I was about 4 or 5 and we would always have multitudes of kittens and cats at our farm. Every time we'd go out to the farm, rain or shine, I'd be walking around with at least one litter of kittens wrapped up in my old dirt covered tshirt. We were never a huge dog family until we got our Cocker Spaniel, Honey. Our first trip to Opelika was in 1999, and we came home with a cute little fur ball that had a bad case of not so cute diarrhea the entire trip home. After that long trip home, she began her happy life as being our first real family dog. Of course Brittany and I both told our parents that we would feed her every night and bathe her and they would never have to worry about a thing; we'd do it all. We'll to anyone out there with small kids pitching a fit for a dog, don't fall for that lie. My mom of course ended up taking care of her. Honey loves momma for good reason. Mom would take her in the side yard when she was a baby puppy and play in the grass with her for hours, and I can't forget to mention any animal living in the Byrd house will *with no exception* eat better than the Queen of England herself. When Britt and I were seniors in high school, we were both allowed to get our own dog (Regardless of the fact I was 17, I still pulled out the "you let her get one!!" line). Maggie, Britt's dog, was a poor excuse for an animal. She was so tiny and scrawny, Momma almost had a heart attack when she found out how much money Britt paid to get her. This has to be the most gentle and sweetest dog ever. I would never ever in a million years worry about her around little kids. She loves everyone and everything. Don't get me wrong though. Maggie is one heck of a stubborn dog. She has chewed up shoes, our blinds in the apartments, door frames, cabinet corners; you name it, she's chewed it. She'll let you know when she's mad. Nonetheless, she's my little Mags and I love her. And lastly there's my sweet baby Gracie. I owe Ms. Laura Martin everything for taking off work and driving me to Valdosta to get her. Gracie is my world. I don't think I'm even going to be able to love my children (whenever that time of my life gets here! No rush please) as much as I do my dog. She's a bit crazy sometimes and probably needs some doggy chill-pills because she has a bit of an anxiety problem (trust me, you've never seen a dog shake and tremble like this dog does). Anyways lately Honey has been very sick with arthritis. She hasn't even been able to stand up to eat because her joints hurt her so badly. Mom has been so upset because she honestly thought we were going to have to put her to sleep. She's lost a ton of weight and would yelp when she would try to even stand up. It's made all of us really upset over the holidays. Well yesterday, Momma and I went to the vets office to get some medicine called Rimadyl, which is given to dogs for severe joint pain. We gave her one about 5 yesterday afternoon and by 9 she was running around, jumping, knocking over the trash can looking for food, and wagging her tail like crazy. Momma and I almost starting crying because our sweet Honey Byrd was acting like she dud when she was a little puppy! It was the best Christmas present ever!!! And God DEFINITELY answered our prayers on this one. I had Daddy's credit card today and bought them all little Christmas surprises!! :)

Maggie


Honey


Gracie