It is with tremendous sadness that I have to tell you the dog we adopted from you 14 years ago had to be laid to rest yesterday. I wrote up an obit, that I think sums up her life fairly well. I thought you might want to read about it so you can know how much she was loved after she left your care. Thank you.
Sienna “CC” Noble – April 2000 - May 24, 2014
We have no idea of CC’s actual birthdate, but we do know that her mother, Kara, and her entire litter of puppies were all callously tossed off a truck somewhere in West Virginia about 2 months after their birth. Kara, as a result, was injured and could no longer nurse her babies. So Shirley Moore and the wonderful organization, Save-a-dog, rescued all of them and brought them to Massachusetts. And thank God for that. Because that’s where we found our little CC. When we first met CC, she was at a foster home that had a gentle, but rather huge dog already there. CC liked to run in circles around that dog and the foster parents told us she would even intimidate their big guy. We instantly fell in love with the little husky mix with pronounced masking on her face and decided we needed to take her home that night. After getting clearance from Shirley, that’s exactly what we did and our amazing journey began. CC was a beautiful and rambunctious puppy, but she had a wickedly stubborn side too. Those early days were some trying times. But, as we soon found out, a husky needs to run. And when CC was old enough to run with us, all those frustrating puppy behaviors went out the door, too, and her natural instinct was fulfilled. There was nothing more uplifting to us than to run with our dog. She would smile from ear to ear; she was fearless, fast, unstoppable—the simplest expression of the joy of running. I was 30 pounds overweight when I got CC. She ran that, and more, off of me. I didn’t save her life, she saved mine. But she did it in so many other ways as well. I won’t go into them all here, as all you dog lovers know the ways.
CC came on the heels of another dog we adopted from you. Her name was Asbury and, sadly because of a rare condition, she only lived to be just over a year old. We always thought that Asbury (Azzy) sent us CC as a gift. CC was as flawless a dog as there could ever be. She never had a health problem at all until she was about 13. And she had a squeaky yawn that sounded exactly like Azzy’s so we thought that was Azzy’s way of letting us know she was all a part of this. It’s a bit silly, I suppose, but even for pragmatic people like us, it never seemed far-fetched.
CC lived to be 14 years old. We laid her to rest on May 24, 2014. She had stopped eating and began to wither away. Her passing was, of course devastatingly sad, but also very beautiful. She was on the floor in the kitchen where she often would lay. The Vet who had taken care of her her whole life came in and CC, naturally, greeted her with a wagging tail with what strength she could muster. Always happy to see others. As our wonderful and compassionate Vet prepped CC, I spooned her and held her head. My wife stared into her gorgeous eyes. I held on to CC tightly as she began to let go. And then she was gone. Off to go run with Asbury through the snowy woods and open fields of some other place. Off, hopefully, to wait for us to come be with her again some day in a land of hope and dreams.
My wife and I will miss our dear friend, running partner, confidant, and loyal companion so much. She was one-of-a-kind. She was special. She was our little Spicey, Sicey, Booty-Doots, Angel-doggins, Sienna, CC. Despite all the silly things we called her, a loving soul would describe her best. For hers was the most loving, compassionate, beautiful soul we have ever known. Thank you for bringing her into our life.
Scott Noble
