Thank you. You all are so kind.
So, where was I? Oh yeah, Tyler and Snorkie had 5 wonderful years together, but there came a day when the quality of life for Snork was diminishing and we made the decision so many of us have had to make, to help Snorkie move beyond his pain and enter puppy heaven.
I called the vet and she was here the next day. We put our big boy on his favorite blanket and we all laid on the floor around him talking to him and petting him onto his next journey. He left us peacefully. Ty was circling and sniffing his big brother the entire time. We all sat quietly on the dining room floor, deeply grieving and silently weeping (even our vet's assistant), when Tyler cracks the biggest Basenji poot I've ever heard. Leave it to a Basenji to know how to make us laugh even in our darkest moments.
Over the next few months, no matter what we did Tyler remained lethargic. He slept all day, ate very little, and started to become a loner. He was always a cuddle bug and right in the middle of what the family was doing. Now he would go into an unoccupied room seemingly to just be by himself.
We looked at shelter dogs as a companion for him, but HE rejected them all. We decided on another Basenji as our only course of action. Enter Katie!! He accepted her from the first moment. Her first puppy nap in our home was on top of Tyler's back. He laid their the whole time wide awake with this look on his face like OMG what have you brought home???
Kate our r/w female, is also called Sissy. Sissy as in sister, sissy because she's afraid of the dark, and sisy, short for Sisyphus because one of her favorite things to do is collect small rocks in the backyard and bring them into the house. (We have no idea why)
Ty was a chewer when he was small, so we were prepared for that. Kate was/is a digger. Couch cushions, carpet, many bed quilts, 2 recliners, I can't remember it all!! Took us a while but we diminished most of the behavior by building a 4 x 4 sand box in the backyard in which we rebury her favorite rocks:D
Have a great day.