Honey "Bee" Wade, 12-29-02 to 6-6-11

It is with great sadness, relief and peace that I write this. Our dog, Honey, passed away today. She had been battling kidney failure for several years. She did remarkably well, according to our veterinarian. Most dogs don't last as long as Honey did. For a long time you wouldn't have known Honey was sick. Robin (our vet) kept telling us the symptoms included loss of appetite, weight loss, lethargy, vomiting, etc. Well, Honey didn't have any of those problems! If you knew her, you know she was a hefty little thing for many years. And a loss of appetite? Ha ha. No. Honey liked to eat. :)

For those of you who don't know the story of Honey, here goes...

Before we were married, Matt and I lived in Sarasota. I had gotten my first job out of college at a community weekly newspaper there. We had been there a month or so when we decided to get a dog. My family had a shih-tzu (the infamous Forrest) when I lived at home, so, naturally I wanted a little lap dog, too. Matt had only had big dogs growing up, so it took a little convincing on my part to get him to agree to a small dog. He found Honey online. She was in Atlanta, and she was the only puppy left in the litter. She was light brown, hence the name "Honey." We drove to Atlanta on Feb. 14, 2003, and we picked her up first thing the next morning. She was a little fur ball. The kids in the house had started calling her Stitch. When we put her in the car and started down the road she started to cry. She cried for about 30 minutes, and then she was okay... until Matt slammed on the brakes and she fell in the floorboard!

We lived on the third floor of a three-story apartment complex with no elevators. So, as you can imagine, housebreaking Honey was a bit of a challenge. We couldn't just open the door and let her out into the yard. No. We had to run down three flights of stairs first, which resulted in lots of peeing on the stairs (and on us) because she couldn't hold it all the way down.

We took Honey to a dog park in Sarasota, where she'd get chased and pounced on by this aggressive little Jack Russell Terrier named Bullet. As if that weren't bad enough, one afternoon there was a "parade of yorkies." Here they all came prancing into the yard, wearing clothing and sunglasses, and this tiny little yorkie walked right up to Honey, lifted its leg and peed on her! That was the last time we visited the dog park.

If you've known Honey from the beginning, you've witnessed the bizarre change in her hair color. She went from a "honey" color to a dark charcoal color - almost black at the end. And just as her hair color evolved, so did her nicknames - Honey Bee, The Bee, Bumble Bee Button, Bee Bear... but, most of the time she was just Bee.

When we decided to move back to Missouri, of course Honey came with us. We lived in Branson for a few months, then we moved into an apartment in Springfield, then we bought a house in Springfield. And finally, about five and a half years ago, we moved to Pontiac.

In May 2008 we adopted another dog, Oscar. Honey took a bit of a backseat when he entered our lives, as he is like white lightning, darting around everywhere, demanding attention and cutting in front of Honey every chance he got. As much as neither of them liked to show it, they were buddies.

And, of course, last September both dogs took a backseat when we brought Lola home from the hospital. That's just life, I guess. Honey had developed a reputation for being a "nipper" from time to time, so we were concerned about how she would act toward Lola. They both pretty much ignored each other.

At the beginning of the year I took Honey and Oscar to the vet for their annual check-up. I was astonished to learn that Honey weighed less than Oscar. I told them to weigh her again, that it wasn't possible. But, sure enough. She had slowly and steadily been losing weight.

Robin explained that dogs could live on 25 percent kidney function - which means 75 percent could be non-functioning, and she'd be able to continue living. But, once it dropped below 25 percent, she would go downhill in a hurry.

Around the first of April Honey got pretty sick. She wouldn't eat much and was vomiting a lot. We took her to the vet, and they ran fluids through her all day long. Robin said she might perk up for a while, and she did! But, Robin warned us that it would be a temporary fix. She had energy, started eating and seemed to be her old self again.

But, over the last few weeks we noticed her eating less and getting smaller. Over the past several days she stopped eating altogether. She started getting sick every day. And she barely had the energy to walk out to the yard - in fact, Matt carried her out and back in the last couple of times. Yesterday afternoon we talked about it, and we knew it was time.

We know she is much better off now. She's probably running around and biting people in heaven (ha ha), begging for greenies and barking at every little noise she hears. But, best of all, she's reunited with her buddy, Forrest. She's buried next to him here, and I know the two of them are probably stirring up trouble together up there. Rest in peace, Honey Bee. We love you.