Three Dogs Who Shaped A Family And A Writer

A rescue dog who arrives broken, a cattle dog genius who never stops working, and a black lab who turns every day into a reason to play. That’s where our conversation with Angie begins, and it quickly becomes something bigger: a clear-eyed look at why the love we build with pets can reshape an entire life.

We talk about Indy, Angie’s black lab named after Indiana Jones, and how she became part of the family after being unable to compete as a show dog. Then we zoom into Nyah, an Australian cattle dog with a mind that seems almost human: opening doors, solving puzzles instantly, launching for Frisbees, and shadowing her people like a true Velcro dog. If you’ve ever lived with a high-drive working breed, you’ll recognize the mix of awe, laughter, and exhaustion.

From there, the story turns to pet loss and pet bereavement in the most honest way: Ozzy’s rescue and rehabilitation, his sudden passing after what seems like a stroke or heart event, and the tender memory of a little girl whispering into an old dog’s ear. Angie also shares Nyah’s rapid decline, the medical unknowns, and the moment the vet makes it clear she’s dying. We talk about the hard choice of euthanasia, the guilt that can follow, and the reminder many of us need: grief is real, grief is normal, and grief is not linear.

We end on something hopeful: Angie’s children’s book series, The Adventures of Liv and Indy: You Make the Call, a nine-book choose-your-own-adventure style collection where Indy helps solve mysteries and other beloved dogs live on as characters. 

Click the following link to find the book series -> Liv and Indy

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Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Every Paw Print, Every Story. For you new listeners, just a little update on what this podcast is about. Every paw print, every story, it's all about the fur kids in our lives. Every paw print has a story. It's a weekly conversation space where people honor pets they've lost, celebrate the joy pets bring, and support one another through pet grief. Each episode centers on a guest memories, the ritual that keep those pets present in daily life, and the lessons of love and loss that pets teach us. Really, the goal with this podcast is to inspire each other. I can tell you I get inspired every moment that I talk to somebody new, interview somebody new. It's it's amazing stories. Uh, it's also designed to guide and support each other, right? You know, guide you through whatever part of life you're in right now, support you if if you haven't experienced pet loss or if you're currently grieving. Um, but it's really truly inspire, guide, and support each other. And I'm super excited today. My head's buzzing, my head's going all over the place. So we're gonna start with Angie. So, Angie, I just want to start, you know, welcome you, welcome you to the show. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Hey, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

And you're in you're in Georgia, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:22

I am.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

What part of Georgia?

SPEAKER_02 1:25

We're in we're near Warner Robins.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

We're in a little town called Kathleen, but it's uh just an Air Force-based town, so so kind of mid-south Georgia, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Exactly, about two hours uh south of Atlanta.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

And hopefully I know there's uh we got some fires going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

That's yeah, we're kind of in not in the middle of it. It there's some north and some south of us, but uh yeah, it's definitely uh messing with some people's lives.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah, we need the rain. Um, but I for the listeners, I was excited about this because I I like to Angie sent me a LinkedIn post, little bio. Amazing. We're gonna get into it, so I don't want to do any spoiler alerts. I know my wife, I had to kind of reconfirm with my wife. I don't know that she met you, she discovered you at a book fair, I think about a month or so ago down there in Perry, Georgia, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

So you and we'll get to the books. So I guess we talked about, but obviously, as I always do, first question I always ask is, and I know we talked a little bit about this, you sent the bio, how many fur kids we have a part of the family

Meet Indy The Black Lab

SPEAKER_00 2:31

today? So it look looks like it's you know one um in in Indy. Yep, her name's Indy. Let's talk a little, let's talk a little bit about Indy. So she's a 10-year-old black lab. Uh how did how did Indy get her name?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Um, well, when we got Indy, we were just uh our old black lab had passed several months prior. So we kind of knew we wanted another black lab because they're just phenomenal dogs. Uh my daughter at the time was about six, and her favorite movie at the time was Indiana Jones. She said, Can we name the dog Indy? Because in the movie, you know, it's like it's the dog's name.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

So uh so Indy, it was easy. It was an easy choice. And we got Indy from um wasn't really a rescue, it was a breeder that does show dogs, but Indy had a flaw on her eye um that had to get surgically fixed. She had an extra, like her tear ducts weren't working properly. Uh so she couldn't be a show dog. So they basically said we're gonna we're gonna sell her. So uh so we got Indy. Best choice we ever made, you know, one of them. They're all great choices, but uh, so that's how Indy got her name.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Okay. And then yeah, so you talked a little bit about how Indy be became part of family.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

And so got her as how old as a puppy?

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah, she was about uh nine weeks old. Okay. About nine weeks old when we got her. Um, we had we had another dog at that time. She

Naya Joins The Pack

SPEAKER_02 4:10

was um maybe seven at the time when we brought home a puppy, Australian cattle dog named Naya. Oh, Naya was um, oh, she was an erotic, lovely dog. We I mean, she was the smartest dog we've ever had in both my my husband and I's lives. Smartest dog we'll we'll probably ever know. Interesting. This dog could open doors. So once Ozzy passed, um, Naya, you know, Naya didn't really act any differently. She was just being herself. So we wanted to bring bring a puppy into the equation. Well, Naya, Naya was a bit of a princess because Naya was um female dog, was there before our daughter was born. So, and she was a solo dog before my daughter was born. Then my daughter came and she's just like, Where's my attention? You know, I'm the princess. So then when we brought Indy into the equation, there was a bit of a similar reaction. She was like, Well, you know, what is this? What is this thing? I don't want this thing. Take this thing back. Um, you know, they had a very interesting relationship. Because of course, Indy being a lab, every day was like, What about today? Today are we gonna be best friends? Are we gonna be best friends today? And Naya every day was like, not today. So so yeah, so we had Naya and then we brought puppy Indy into the equation.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Okay, yeah, I heard that breed is yeah, super smart, super intelligent.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Oh, it's crazy how smart they are.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

So, what what are some of the well, so Naya, that's an interesting name. I haven't heard that. How did that name come to be?

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Um, we wanted to kind of keep her roots from you know, because they're just from dingos in Australia. So there is a river in Australia called uh the Naya River. And so we just kind of looked at a map trying to get inspired by names, trying to find something different because she was a different, you know, she wasn't a lily or a you know, a typical dog name. So um, so we saw that, and my husband said, What about Naya? I love it.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, had he is it had you spell N-I-A or I'm No N-Y-A-H. N-Y-A-H, gotcha. Okay. And then she was a puppy as well when you got it? She was.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

She was. So when my husband and I got married, um, you know, we we had had a dog when we got married, and Naya was kind of a gift to my husband because he had always said, you know, an Australian call that can't talk. An Australian cattle dog, a blue healer is what they call him. Um, that's my dream dog. He's like, that is like the coolest dog. He's like, I would love to have one of those dogs. So as a Christmas gift, um, we got her from a breeder in, I believe it was Alabama, and uh, and she flew up at uh, you know, and at this point we lived in Florida, and you know, we picked her up at the airport, this little this little you know, fur ball. So that's how Naya kind of came to be.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

So you guys are uh I I I'm picking up a pattern here with the puppies and going through the puppy hood. So you guys are a glutton for punishment going through the puppy.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

We are, we are. You know, our dogs before that were all rescue dogs, and it's like, hey, let's let's try the puppy thing. We've got a little bit of time. Um, but uh, you know, both are equally rewarding.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Right. So um, gosh, yeah, I'm I'm my like I said, my mind's all over the

Life With A Genius Cattle Dog

SPEAKER_00 7:40

place. We've got some fun stories here. So going back to nine, uh, you had me curious with the super intelligence, the super smart, and uh, you know, opening doors. What were some of the other fascinating things that just the smarts that she could she would do or could do?

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Um, she would she would, if she wanted ice, she would just get it from the from the ice maker. She would just pop up and and do that. Um, she was just one of those dogs that you knew based, like she knew exactly what you were talking about. Indy's pretty smart too, but not not like this. Um, and it was just, you know, it was it was nudging open windows. It was just basically we would get those um those puppy or those those dog puzzles, and she would solve them in in no time. You know, like, well, that's that's not fun. You know, she would be like, you know, like it, like she's like, they're like genius dogs because I think they just want a job. They're just working dogs, so they're constantly like looking for that. And she was happy when she was doing something with that big brain of hers.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, like that that I get. So you're constantly active, constantly busy now. Did she did she have a a specific time during the day where that just kind of shut down and she could just crash on the couch, or was it kind of endless energy?

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Maybe when we went to bed. That was about it. You know, she was very, she was um this dog could catch a frisbee like no other. We could throw a frisbee as far as we possibly could, and she would run and she would jump six feet in the in the air and catch it. Um, when she was about seven, um, she came down funny on a jump and actually tore her ACL.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Ah.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Um, so she was kind of after that, she wasn't nearly as active, but she wanted to be, you know, you don't you don't stop that just because they're hurt.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Um, but she would that was her her flying days were over, that's for sure. Yeah. But she would also um she would jump, it's like she had springs in her feet. She would jump like this onto the couch. She would just ping like a little pogo stick. Um, and one of the funniest things, we came downstairs. Um, Olivia had been was my daughter's live. Um, she had been born several months, and we were both home for for maternity and paternity leave. And we came downstairs after putting Olivia to sleep. And Olivia, like at this point, was maybe four or five weeks old. Naya was on top of our bar top table, kitchen table, just standing there, like, hi guys, what you doing? And I think she just got bored. And she's like, well, maybe it'd be maybe I want to see what's up here. So she would do stuff like that often.

unknown 10:25

That's fine.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah, she was ACL, yeah. The ACL t oh, yeah, we we had four of those, so we we relate to that. Yes, yes. Um, what about um with with Naya? Like any fun, you know, greetings, like if you guys left the house, came home, any kind of fun, crazy greetings?

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Not really, uh, that's too far out of the norm. You know, like again, with her pogo stick, she would just jump. It would be it would be a jump. And one of the funny things about about Naya is she loved us just. I mean, she cattle dogs by nature, they are they pick one person or two, and that is their person. They are they are that shadow. Like that dog, especially as she got older, she did not leave my heel. They call her healers for a reason because they they're at your heel. They, you know, and and when Olivia was young, um, she would she would nip her. Like she didn't want Olivia to jump in our pool, so she would try to keep her out of it. And she would um, she would, she would kind of herd her away because it's just it's in her genetic code. But um, so uh so Naya with us, she was just suction cup to us. She was uh she was a Velcro dog, she really was. Um, with everybody else, you could tell she likes them, she loved people, but not like she liked us. So when we came home, it was just pretty much your typical. She would just bounce and bounce and bounce and bounce and bounce and bring a ball and you know, say, you know, when are we gonna play? When what are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Right, right. Very good.

Beach Days And Water Personalities

SPEAKER_02 12:07

And we lived in um, we lived in Florida for a long time before we moved to Georgia for all of um all of Naya's life. And so we were lucky enough to have dog beaches fairly close by, um, especially when we lived in Naples. Uh and she loved the dog beach. She would just, she would like to show off at the dog beach. She would show her her skills of of catching frisbees, and you know, uh so that was one of our fondest memories of Naya's just taking her to the dog beach.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

I love that you went there. That's usually a question. So you beat me to the question. So that's okay. So now I'm uh you got the dog be. So obviously, as you're doing the frisbee, we're off leash, so no issues with her getting distracted and going somewhere else. She'll go catch the frisbee and bring it back to y'all.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Oh, yeah, she she was very focused.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Very cool. Um, how did she do with the water? Loved it. Interesting, okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Loved it as long as she was fetching the thing out of it. Was she go out there just to swim? No. You know, but it was it was a task, it was a job for her. So if that took her in deep waters, that took her in deep waters.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Um, but she she certainly didn't shy away from it. We had a pool at our home and she wouldn't go swimming on her own. And she would go in there, but you could tell. Um, we the the lab before, um uh with sorry, the lab with Naya, his uh his her uh his name was Ozzy, hated the water. So both of them wouldn't really go in the pool all that much. Now, Indy is completely the opposite, totally obsessed with every form of water.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Okay, wow, very cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Okay, you can take her to a creek, to anybody's pool. She will go around and find the steps and walk in and just do just do laps. She doesn't need a ball, she just does laps.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

That's uh very okay. That's indie we're talking about, right? That's indie, yep. That's that's awesome. That's so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

So in our Florida home, we we had we had three dogs total in our in our Florida home. The first was my rescue Ozzie, okay, Radnix. Yep, then Naya, and then Indy. Now Ozzie and Naya were together, and then Ozzy passed at 14. You know, he had a ripe, ripe away at the age of 14. And then after Ozzie passed, we got uh we got Indy as a puppy.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

So we always had one dog um who wanted to go in the pool. Naya was never the one that wanted to go in the pool. She would, but it wasn't like you we can't keep our labs from the pool. So we could if we tell them no, they'll be like, okay, no, and then they'll just kind of ease in, like, oh, what's the worst that's gonna happen here?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

So Naya would go in for a task, whereas Ozzie and Indy, they would just jump in, they would just jump in just for just to be in the water. That's awesome. So uh Ozzy and Naya, well yeah, so let Ozzy, how did Ozzy, how did Ozzy's name become his Ozzy?

Ozzy The Rescue And Rehab

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Well, um, so I got Ozzy at the Humane, um, the Knoxville Humane Society. Um, I was looking for a dog. I knew that I wanted one. I had never had a dog on my own. At that point, I was in my 20s, and I just I'm like, okay, it's time. It's time for me to have a dog. I grew up with dogs. So I went week after week trying to check out these these dogs, check out these puppies. And if you know, you know, it's one of those things that, like, when you meet your dog, when you meet your fur kid, you know, especially when they're a rescue. Right. You just know. And so the people at the Humane Society, they knew me by name at that point because I would come in about once a week, and they would just say, go on back, and you know, three, four, five weeks pass, and I'd been there. And then I meet Ozzie. And Ozzie was he was beaten to a pulp. He was, he was not in very good, good shape. Um, he was a surrender because they said he was aggressive. He was not aggressive. There was no part of that that boy who was aggressive. He was just treated poorly. Um, you could see, you know, you could see all of the the bones, you could see his hip. Um, so he was my real rehabilitation dog, but I tell everybody about Ozzy. Ozzie was about a year to a year and a half when I got him. Uh so he was he was full grown with with a set of with a set of mental issues. Um, it took a little bit of time to get him to warm up to life, to not un to trust, to trust people, to trust me. He trusted me from the beginning, but there was a hesitancy. There was a uh a scared part of him that when he didn't know what love was, you could just tell because when you would go to to pet him, he would just kind of cower a little bit, and it was very sad. So um, so he learned real quickly that hey, you know, this is good. This lady just loves me and feeds me. Like we're good here. But to Ozzy, uh, I didn't make up his name. That was his name.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

That was his name. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

That was his name, and it seemed to fit.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

So okay. I was wondering if we're gonna go down the route of Ozzie Osbourne or something.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

No, I don't know what he was named for, but probably, probably Ozzy Osbourne. But uh, so yeah, Ozzy just we just kept his name. No, that's just kept his name.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Hate to hear, so you said you got him when he was about year, year and a half. Yep, yeah. Hate to hear the story behind the beginning days for him.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Yeah, well, you know, like but sounds like 12 and a half, 13 years of love that you he turned out to be just a you know, just such a wonderful, wonderful dog. He and my daughter were that was her first best friend, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

So how far, whoops, my door back here just opened because Carly just opened it.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

So speaking of doors open speaking of opening doors, like hey, I want in.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Oh no, she wants out, actually.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

So I'm she hopefully she doesn't make too much noise in the background. But um, so how soon after did Naya come into the picture when when you had Ozzie?

SPEAKER_02 18:32

So Ozzie was my dog before I met my husband.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

So Ozzie, when I met my husband, Ozzie was seven, six, seven, maybe something like that. Okay. So when we got um when we got Naya, Ozzie was maybe nine or ten when we got so he he was an older dog, but we thought we would keep him young by getting him a puppy. That I'm not sure that that worked, but uh they but they were buddies, they were buddies. He was just an old man, he was an old man with this young, spry little sister going, okay, you do your thing. I'm just gonna go, I'm gonna go relax over here.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Okay, so they got along.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

They did, they did. You know, um as much as Naya was gonna get along with any dog that was in the same house because she was cattle dogs, they're very um, I dare to say needy, um, but they want they want the attention, you know, they want the attention. Um, but Ozzy was Ozzy's a very Ozzy was a very laid-back dog, so easy to get along with.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Perfect, perfect compliment, I guess, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

And

Ozzy’s Sudden Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 19:44

then uh how so naturally with the show we always talk about the the the hard stuff just to help. Um was it uh just natural old age or what uh yeah, it was very strange.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Um he was great. He was great, and he actually passed on Easter Sunday. Um he passed on Easter Sunday, he was good. I think he had you know a little bit of turkey, a little bit of ham, you know, 14 again, 14 years old. So he was definitely um give or take, because again, age when you get a rescue dog, it's right, you know, you could it could be a little, it could be off by a year.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Um, so I mean he could have been closer to 15, you know. Uh, but so he lived a pretty healthy life uh until that literally that last day. Uh af that night in the middle of the night, he acted like he had to go outside. So I took him out. We were actually at my parents' house at the time because we were spending the night there. We had spent Easter Sunday with them. And uh he went outside and he went to go to the restroom and he froze. Like he got real still, and like I could tell something was wrong, and he almost looked really far away. Um, I think he had a stroke, or I think he had a heart attack in that in that time because after that he couldn't really walk. He was kind of stumbling over himself, and I don't think he could see either. And he was his vision was fine up until this point. So I picked him up and I put him on his dog bed and I kind of crouched down with him and uh within one minute he was gone. That was it. It was really quick, it was really sudden. Um, there was no preparing for it.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

You know, I I tell friends with with pets, I you know, I tell I even tell my daughter, because my daughter is like she was uh how old was she? Four or five or six, something like that, maybe when when Ozzy passed. So she was at a really actually I think she was five or six. She was at a really kind of funky age to lose what was her best friend. But it's like, hey, he was he was old and he did us. A service. He passed so quickly without much, you know, he didn't seem to be in much pain. Right. Um, you know, and we and I was there with him, and and he went peacefully. He just like he's like he just he went.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

That's amazing. Um and then obviously you had Naya. Uh I did did was it what kind of impact on you, or did you feel like, you know, I I I just you you felt like you had the closure, and you know, he was a great you know, age, and it was just I mean, it's never easy.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Yeah, you know, it's never easy to lose, especially for me, because um Ozzy was my first dog, and I will tell everybody that he rescued me more than I rescued him. You know, he was it was at a place in my life where I was kind of trying to figure out what was next, you know, relationships with Rocky. Um and he just he healed a part of me that I didn't really even know needed to be healed. And uh, and I think I did the same for him. You know, we were um so when he passed, it was hard. It was hard on me. It was more hard on me um than it was my husband because he didn't have that relationship with Ozzy.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

And it was hard on Olivia um because that was, I mean, I've got a picture and I might send it to you after we're done here. Um, when Ozzy got really old, he could not hear. Like he, I don't think he could hear a thing. Um, he could see anything, he'd catch a piece of ice out of the out of the air, but he couldn't hear. Um and so imagine a little girl. She swore that if she lifted up his ear and she whispered in it that he could hear. And so I have a I have a photo of her doing just that of old gray Ozzy and a little and a little girl in a dress whispering in his ear, and he looks like he might be smiling. So I'm not sure she wasn't, yeah, she could have been right. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

That yeah, you gotta send me that. That's a I will.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

It's a really pretty picture.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

That's priceless picture. Um, so that and then keepsake afterward, keepsakes of Zazy. What did you do from a memorial?

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Um, we ended up, I think I just I just got a paw print. You know, it's one of those my keepsakes are really just in my heart and in my, you know, um, I've never been one to to keep ashes, but I understand why people do. Um, so I think we just got you know a complimentary paw print that is that turned into like a Christmas ornament.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

So so now we just have Christmas ornaments that that are that that have Aussie written all over it.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Very cool. And then um Naya talk about uh you know her age and that passing.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

She, you

Naya’s Illness And Hard Choice

SPEAKER_02 24:50

know, she passed pretty early in in her life. She was 12, which is early for her breed. Her breed tends to be some of the oldest living dogs, um, especially the working ones that are out on the farm and and doing their thing. Um, we never really got a reason as to why, but she started getting um uh like a little bit swollen in her, like in her throat stomach area, kind of like in her chest area. And um we took her to the vet and they just said there's some there's some fluid in there. If you want to do, if you want to do, it's not really affecting her, but if you want to do all these tests, we can. Well, we chose not to because she, you know, she wasn't, it wasn't affecting her behavior. It just was like something physical was going on. And then it started affecting her behavior. My husband was out of town, of course. You know, and he's never out of town. You know, when these bad things happen, often it's like, oh, of all the days that this stuff could happen, all these all the weeks, my husband wasn't there. Um, but she started acting. Um, she couldn't, she wasn't drinking water, she wasn't eating, and that was, and it was something that had come really sudden.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Um, so I gave her about a day and said, you know, because we we get sick, we don't want to eat, we won't want to drink, you know, but oftentimes we bounce, you're like, we're we're okay, we just got a little bug or whatever. Um, and she was drinking water fine, she just didn't want to eat. So then she stopped drinking water. So at that point, I took her to the vet, called my husband. I'm like, hey, we got a problem here. Like, Nai is not good. Um, and Nye was the type of dog that she was deathly afraid of storms. Um, she would uh lightning specifically, she would shake and she would she would look for just like uh we we had a crawl space. She would go in the crawl space when she was scared. Well, she wanted to go in the crawl space. And that broke my heart because I think I I think the writing was on the wall, like something was really wrong with her. So um they said, listen, the whatever fluid is in there, um we'd you know, without doing extensive tests, we've done blood tests, you know, her blood, her blood is is telling us that there's something wrong. Her white cell count is, you know, not good. Um, but you know, to put her through these um these x-rays and and things like that, you know, do you want to do that? It's like, well, tell me. I said, well, what we'll do is we will we will pack her full of fluids. So she's getting fluids. So they and they did that, they did that on her back. They basically packed her, literally packed her full of fluids. So her body could um could basically fight whatever it was doing without her having to drink because she wasn't drinking. And they said, We're gonna pack her full of fluids, and then um you call us tomorrow. Okay, so this was this was let's say it's Thursday. This was Thursday morning, said, We'll we'll check with you on Friday to see how she's doing. All through that day, she just you could tell she just got more sunken in and more sunken in, like she was very dehydrated. Um, and she just kept on wanting to retreat. She wanted to just go and hunker down into a into a faraway corner by herself. Um, and uh my husband had gotten all the messages and he actually came home. Uh, he was home that evening. And uh and you know, she hadn't really, she wasn't able to eat or drink at that day. Um, and they just said they said it was probably um a mass that had grown that was um basically maybe on her stomach. Because when they had kind of looked around, they said, listen, all we can say is because they did like an ultrasound, they just didn't do um, because she's the type of dog that in order to give, in order to do a proper x-ray, the dog has to be completely still.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Well, that's not exactly easy when you have a even if it's a sick dog, you know, they don't want to, they don't want to be still. Um, but they said, yeah, there's a mass, we can't tell what it is. It could be cancerous, it could be fluid, it could be a lot of things, it could be accumulation of of both. Um so after um, so when my husband came home, Naya, Naya wagged her tail and she was happy to see him. Um, and that next morning we took her to the vet and they said um they said she's she's dying. She's dying. So we so we put her down. And that was uh that was tough because that has been one of the only dogs that we've had. A lot of them have died naturally. We've been lucky. That was um I think at least for me, I think it's the first dog that I can think of that we had to choose. And it was it was an easy choice. She was sick, right? She was sick and she wasn't coming back from it.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah, sounds like it.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

And uh, I mean, and they made that very clear. It's like, hey, we're willing to do if you say do this test and it's gonna make it better. They said chances are with her being here, and then all of a sudden a couple days later, being being here, you know, her body, her, her body shutting down. Right. Um, so so yes, we we said our goodbyes, and um, and that was actually more sad than than losing Ozzie.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Um, I don't know why. I think maybe because when a dog is 14 and you see them physically age, um, and 14 for a lab is that's that's a that's all that's old.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

You know. Um, so and so I think emotionally when Ozzy passed, it was it was easy. It was, you know, it's like, okay, my brain understands that he was old. Um, Naya, not so much. It was like, you know, you you always say, could we have prevented this? You know, you kind of feel guilty about about not, even though it's silly and it's it might even be irrational. But you know, I think it's just it's harder to it's harder to emotionally handle when dogs pass when you don't have the time to prepare for it.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Right, right. That makes sense. And you said she was 12.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

She was 12.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Yeah, so then to your point the thinking, yeah, I I feel like we should have more time out of her.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

And yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Um, that makes sense. Uh, and I know she it time flies. I know we're getting close to the to the end, um, which I I tell everybody, it's like we'll have to maybe probably bring you back again.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Um sorry, I'm teddy.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

No, no, no. This this is amazing stuff. And then then obviously as we look at today, we've still got Indy with us. Uh again, how old did you say Indy is? And he's going to be 10 this summer, but she's close, she's real close to 10. Um, and but you know, slowing down a little bit, still got a lot of.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

I mean, her back hips are a little like you can tell one hip is just a little like I'm 10, like at night, she's just has a hard time getting up off the hardwood floor as well. I do too, you know. So I get it. But during the day, she's running around, she wants to play all the time. So she's pretty much good, but you can just tell that uh that one of her back back wheels is just a little little inflamed.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

And

Turning Dog Love Into Books

SPEAKER_00 32:17

I feel like in listening to you and what you sent me, so we we to so obviously to touch on this and to share with the readers, I feel like these three kids inspired you to author to create a book series. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, so my book series was always is really to commemorate Indy, which, you know, it's about Indy and Liv because they have such a wonderful relationship. Uh, but uh so the series itself is the the adventures of Live and Indy, the You Make the Call series. So um each of the books, Indy is a very integral part of solving uh the mystery or the scavenger hunt or whatever, whatever the question is of the book, um, Indy is as equal part of the person solving it as Liv is.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

And uh and yeah, so so to commemorate Indy, um, you know, obviously she's she's one of the main characters, but to commemorate the other dogs, um, they are different characters in different books, just to kind of uh put them in. Um, and I always knew that they were going to be parts of that. Even in the second book, um, there's the second book is a lost dog that they find and they they search clues to figure out this dog's owner. Um, and the dog itself, here I'll show you the cover since I've got you here. Um, so the dog itself here, that's that's uh the second book there. And that dog is Casey. Now, growing up, I had a rescue dog named Casey, and he was a red labrador, just a uh like he was a mix. We got him from the pound. But if you could just imagine just a smaller red lab, that's what Casey looked like. So Casey's in that book as the missing dog.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

How many? Uh that's that's awesome. For the listeners, we'll definitely make sure you go look at the description, read the description of this podcast to see where to find Angie's book. How many how many books are we talking about?

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Uh right now, I just put out the ninth book in the series.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Okay, fascinating. Okay. I'm gonna have to catch up on all that stuff myself.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

Yeah, so there's there's nine, and and one thing that's a little bit different for your uh for your listeners, if anybody can remember the choose your own adventure series, which is basically at the end of each chapter, the reader gets to choose where to go next. So the books themselves have different paths, and many of them have multiple endings. So um these books are formatted like that. So at the end of each chapter, uh the child, the reader, gets to choose do they want to go to path A or do they want to go to path B? And path B will take them on a different road versus path A. And then it keeps on going each through each chapter.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Very cool. Okay, that's awesome. Um, so definitely we'll get the link in there for the listeners to go check out to to get to get the the series of books.

Advice For Pet Loss And Closing

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Um with that, so we'll we'll kind of wrap up and end on um question I always like to ask. It it's more you know, for the listeners kind of guiding, you know, guiding them obviously with the journeys you've experienced and been on with the the losses. What uh and then obviously with Indy still being present, what gosh, what advice would you give someone that you know maybe hasn't experienced the the the loss yet or maybe has recently experienced loss? What what what advice could you share?

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Um as far as advice, you know, when you deal with the loss of a pet, especially of a fur baby, um it's tremendous. It's a tremendous amount of loss. Some people compare the grief to, I mean, they say it's harder to lose a pet companion than it is sometimes to even lose a lose a human companion. And I think that's because we form these just these incredible trust bonds with these with these animals. And I guess my only advice is to know that it's it's grief. You know, treat it as and treat it as such, you know, and and any form of grief is normal. If it's you know, if you're crying or if you're and even if you're not, like that's normal because it's grief, and grief is not linear.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Um, and it you know, for me, we just we just try to just remember all the good and because there's so much good. There's so much good.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

No, love it. Thank you, and and so much good in these books. So Angie, thank you again.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Oh, you're so welcome.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Yeah, appreciate it. And again, listeners, you know, look in the description of the uh the episode for Angie's details for her book series. Um, but again, that wraps up this this episode, and thank you again for being on Angie.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

Thank you.