This has been a rough couple of weeks my friends.  I know that a large portion  of my blog readers are on Facebook as well, and heard this incredibly sad news a week ago today, but I didn't want to leave out any of Gracies beautiful friends and family so am posting on the blog today.  We lost her a year and a day after dear Megawatt....it's been rough I'll tell ya!!

Gracie had just celebrated her second birthday last Friday and we were looking forward to many more years of her antics and the pure joy she gave back to Steve, myself, and her bestie in the world, Lillian.  She had gone through a minor surgery the week beforehand which included removal of a benign nodule by her tonsil which was interfering with her breathing.  Anesthesia is touchy with chows and we heaved a sigh of relief when she woke from surgery, then another sigh each day that passed until 5 days went by....just as we thought she was out of the danger period.

I can barely write this through the tears, so to make a very long and unbearable story short, we lost her due to complications which arose FIVE DAYS following surgery..  It's a total mystery what happened ...we will never know why her breathing became labored and her lungs filled with fluid.  The emergency vet performed a tracheotomy on her as well as CPR as a  last effort to save our dear dear Gracie.  Its hard enough to lose a best friend, but so young, and with no explanation why.....it's the hardest part for us to deal with. 

We got to see her deep under anesthesia following her tracheotomy and as the vet was explaining her condition to us while we looked over her, hoping she would be ok , I uttered "Precious",..... and her tail wagged.   It was the last time we saw her before things took another turn for the worse later in the day.  Little did we realize at the time..... that fleeting moment  was our final farewell to our Gracie.  Even the vet was extremely surprised at her reaction.

As tough as these past 2 weeks have been, we need to move forward as my little Muse guides me from her cardboard box fort on the Rainbow Bridge.  She will forever be a part of our lives as her memories carry on in in her thousands of  photographs, videos, friends, fans, and artwork she has , and will continue, to inspire.  We have just the one chow here, our incredible Lillian who is lost without her friend.  She is getting so much love and hugs and works very hard to cheer us up.  I don't know how we would get past this tragedy without her.

Thank you again Diana and Jim Hillygus for entrusting us with this one of a kind treasure. There are no words to express how much Steve, Lillian and I adored Gracie.  No words!!! This is the hardest one yet we have had to say goodbye too.