Tommy (April 2014- July 8, 2014)

At the end of April 2014, a tiny brown stray puppy was born (along with many others I’m sure) here in Suva, Fiji.  I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting this little guy until June 20^th, but I’m quite sure that he was quite the adventurous little rascal, because it was his sense of adventure that brought him to me.  I was working hard on my auditing tool in my office at the Ministry of Health’s health promotion office and it was pouring cats and dogs… literally.  I heard something crying outside the window and I left it for a while until finally I couldn’t ignore it anymore.  There was this poor drenched little puppy stuck in a deep ditch.  I whipped off my sweatshirt and wrapped him in it and brought him to my office.  My coworker, Ai, poured him a bowl of milk, which he gobbled up, and then he snuggled up in my sweatshirt on my lap and fell asleep while I finished my work.  I took him home and gave him a bath and quickly took him to the animal shelter, because he was getting sicker by the minute.

Puppy's First Bath

It broke my heart, but I exchanged my sweet, but very sick little baby for a form that asked for his information, including his name.  I decided that he at least deserved a name.  One of the girls with me volunteered the name Thomas, so I settled on Tommy.  I gave him one last kiss and left him there.  I came back at least once every week (sometimes twice).  Tommy got better and better!  He looked happier and healthier, and the nurse even said that he was becoming quite the little rascal: waking everyone up with his howling early each morning, and just being a little rascal.  I was such a proud mama!  On my birthday I visited Tommy as a birthday present to myself, and he was sick again, but the nurse assured me he was a fighter and that he would pull through.  She let me sit with Tommy for a while and rock him, he was finally starting to recognize me and snuggled into me.  I didn’t know that that would be the last time I would see my baby boy.

Tommy and I on my Birthday

This week work and drama and life piled up and I kept putting off seeing Tommy, finally today after a long day of work and feeling completely exhausted I decided to drop everything and go see Tommy.  When I got there one of the workers nodded me on to go visit Tommy like they always do, when I got there I couldn’t see him and his nurse, who was feeding the dogs, turned around and her face dropped. “I’m so sorry,” she said, “Tommy died on Tuesday.  I did everything I could, but he was just so sick.”  All I could think to do was thank her for all that she did for him, linger for a bit and watch the other puppies all excitedly bark for my attention, and then I left.

I’m glad my little rascal doesn’t have to feel so sick anymore, I’m sure he’s up in puppy heaven causing trouble and having a blast doing it, like all puppies should.  I just hope one day I can see him again and watch his little eyes light up because he recognizes me.  But if anything I hope my naïve little rascal was able to understand that I loved him oh so very much, and always will!

My little Rascal!