11/26/2023
đThe Story of Strawberry đ
You were one of the first pups ever born in our house. You were an accident: I rescued your parents, who were housed together at the time and were both labeled as âfemale.â Obviously that label was incorrect because you were born just a couple weeks later.
You and your siblings were almost identical, but I knew you because you were the only pup I could always pick up, even when you first opened your eyes.
Your family wasnât healthy, which wasnât too surprising given where you came from and that your parents werenât responsibly bred. Three of your siblings passed of undetermined causes before they were even 10 weeks old.
One day, when you were around 4-5 months old, I found you stumbling along the front of your tank, like you were trying to get my attention. You could barely walk and I rushed you to the ER. The vet determined that most likely cause was a stroke. I brought you home and you never did walk normally again; there was muscle atrophy in your hind legs for the rest of your life. But you powered through and after a few months, you could even run on your wheel again. Your movements werenât quite normal, but you found a way to make it work.
You lived 1 year and 9 months, more than half of your life spent living with side effects of the stroke. Given your familyâs illnesses and your own, I feel truly blessed that I was able to have you for so long and that you were still able to have a good life.
Rest now. You worked so hard and you earned every bit of it.
đRIP February 2022-November 2023đ
