On Jan 29th, our beloved Leia passed away. She succumbed to complications from Gall Bladder removal surgery.

It all seemed liked one long emotional journey and cruel joke.

On Sat Jan 24th, we took her to the vet, after she hadn’t eaten for 2 days, they ran tests, which showed her gall bladder was leaking.

We were told this was a life and death situation and to get her to Kansas State University’s animal clinic immediately.

With ice on the road and my phone constantly telling me I was in a weather alert area, I made the 2 hour trek.

On Sunday the 25th, they did the surgery. She was doing well eventually and by Wed morning Jan 28th, they said she will likely be able to come home by the night of the 29th.

Then just hours later, Wed evening the vet called back to say Leia was rapidly declining. That they found an embolism. While fairly treatable in humans, there are few options in dogs.

Around 6am on the 29th, the embolism dislodged and hit her heart, and she passed instantly. They tried CPR for 20 min, but she didn’t come back.

Heartbroken doesn’t even come close to the way I feel.

Leia, for her 6 years of life, was attached to me. When she was little, she slept on my pillow, no disregard for my own headspace. When she grew up, she slept on my back or chest. When I got home from work, she lay on my lap.

She made clear to the other dogs in the house, she was daddy’s girl.

Now that we have a son, she understood she had to share me. She would let our son pet her and at nap time, they both would share my lap or chest.

But now, that is all gone.

I’m upset our son Kylo won’t get to grow up with such an affectionate dog.

She had many more years left in her and for whatever reason, she was taken from us.

We love all our dogs, that is why we maxed out our 2 credit cards to care for her, we thought she was going to pull through.

She is irreplaceable.

Because we have other dogs, a 1.5 year old son and other debt, we would really appreciate your consideration in donating to help us recover some of what we lost financially in our efforts to try to save our dog.

Thank you to those that share this, thank you to those who are able to financially contribute.

Thank you for honoring Leia!