R.I.P. Chandler Braden aka Chandler Bing - Our Beloved Dog

It was a very sad day.  I got a call at work from from our twelve year old Braxton frantic that Chandler, our 18 pound Jack Terrier - Beagle mix, was acting lethargic.  We had noticed about a year earlier that his heartbeat was a little irregular.  I feared that this was probably also something related.  I told Braxton that they could try to get him to a veterinarian.  He said that was what they were going to do and hung up.

I later found out that Erica was in the middle of needing to get our oldest son to a soccer game within about twenty minutes and she had a doctors appointment for a cancer treatment infusion in about an hour.  I wasn't there, but I can imagine the chaotic scene.

Braxton decided to call his Nanna (Erica's Mom) to have her come over and take them to a veterinarian he had just made an emergency appointment with.  He had apparently done all of that within about five minutes of me hanging up with him.  I had put my thoughts back into work and about thirty minutes after talking the first time the phone rang again, and my stomach did a flip.  It was Braxton again, he said Chandler had just taken his last breath in his arms.  He was devastated to say the least.  Poor guy was home alone with a buddy that had stayed over the night before.

I told him to call his Nanna back and let her know she didn't need to come over.  I left the office right away and got home about forty minutes later.  I've had plenty of tough moments while raising our boys, but this one was very very difficult.  

Erica and I had an American Eskimo named Princess that was about five years old when our oldest Harvey IV was born in 2003.  By the time Braxton was born Princess was getting to be an old lady.  Harvey IV was more into Princess because he had been around her since birth.  Harvey IV loved Chandler too, but Chandler was definitely Braxton's first best friend.  We got Chandler when he was about eights weeks old and Braxton was about four.  Princess passed away just just a few months after baby Chandler Bing came into our life.

Braxton would bathe Chandler regularly, he slept with him, and by far this was the most devastating thing he had experienced to date.  So we sat by Chandlers side and had a good cry together.  Once we were able focus a little, we decided that we would have Chandler cremated at a pet crematory that we had previously taken Princess to years before.  It was a slow and somber drive to the crematorium.

Chandler now rests in our curio cabinet beside Princess.  The cabinet is an heirloom from my great grandmother, so we keep all of our important memory keepsakes in there.  So now we are a three dog family.  Some would say that is still a lot of dogs, but it will always feel a little less with our little buddy gone. 

Harvey III
www.Harvster.com 
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