Newborn Page

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Nicholas Albert Haider

Born: Wednesday, May 5th, 2004 12:54 PM

Weight: 9 lbs 4 oz Length: 21 3/4 inches

Journal

Thursday, November 13, 2008 8:29 AM CST

Since I last wrote here, we have once again endured a painful loss, but this time it was our sweet Lacey, our Beagle, who died. Lacey’s death is not comparable to the death of any person. However, Lacey had been with Steve and I since well before any of our children. She was the first being that we cared for as a married couple. She was the first tiny, delicate thing we had to feed, teach, and love. We may not have had much success with the teaching part of raising Lacey, but she was a part of our family nonetheless. In May of 2004 she knew that something wasn’t right when Steve and I cried and came home empty handed. She stayed with me on the couch during that long, lonely summer, and she wanted so much to be a part of the routine with the new baby girl we brought home 16 months later. I have pictures of her climbing into the pink and yellow chenille children’s chair after we’d taken Samantha out of it. Lacey was always gentle with Samantha and Max, and truthfully, we only lost a few baby toys to her.

Lacey also loved to see her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, and she was always overly excited to see her uncle Mush. She’d race, full speed from one end of the house to the other, and she’d jump on our couches and race around in circles between them and the floor. She also loved barreling through our back yard chasing after rabbits or squirrels. It was these activities, among others, that did her in. Lacey made one fatal jump that resulted in a pinched something-or-other that left her paralyzed from her mid-back through her hind legs and tail. She would not ever have been able to walk again.

Now we have two heavenly family members we talk about in our house. The questions about what happened to Lacey have ceased somewhat, but occasionally Sam needs to hear us tell the story again. “Lacey hurt her back in a way that’s bad for dogs and that causes them to die,” we said.

“Is she in Heaven?” Sam asked.

“Yes, and now she gets to play with Nicholas and tell him all about you and Max,” we said.

The conversation continued, and I feel like we did okay explaining in three-year-old terms what Heaven was all about. We’ve got a long way to go though.

We had Lacey for 6 years, and since she left us in late August, we have, once again, had to get used to life without something we expected to be with us. Our routines are different with no dog to care for, and our evenings of watching TV are lonelier without Lacey begging us to pet her.

Another puppy is in our future, but like our desire to have children after Nicholas, we need to be ready to go through all the difficulties of bringing home a new, needy dog. And this time we have two kids who’ll be a part of the puppy-choosing process, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

Hospital Information:

Fairview University Medical Center
2450 Riverside Campus
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-672-6000

Links:

E-mail Author: theresahaider@gmail.com

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