Saying Goodbye to our Izzy

This is the part of our trip this year where it was all a blur. After we left Iowa our dog of 15 years was going downhill, and it made traveling more complicated. We tried so hard to keep her comfortable, she still seemed to handle the driving days relatively well; however we cut any of our daytime trips to 2-3 hrs max away from the MH while parked at the campground so we could ensure she was doing okay and not in any distress.

Once we left Iowa we came into Illinois and stayed at a great campsite called Starved Rock Family Campground. It wasn’t over-the-top fabulous, but it was nice. While we were here, we visited Starved Rock State Park and had dinner at the lodge. We took one day and ventured into downtown Utica and had lunch in one of their outdoor restaurant seating areas and enjoyed people-watching. The temperatures here we not too bad but the humidity was UGH!

We woke up on June 15th and headed into Elkhart, Indiana where we had a new couch (theater seating) installed in the motorhome. This is something we had been planning on for a while - so we modified our route so that we could pick it up and have it installed rather than trying to coordinate shipping during our travels. It was fun to finally arrive and get it put in. We are over the moon happy about the comfort the seating provides and upgrading to recliner seating over the standard straight hide-a-bed couch.

While the couch was installed, Mark and I took a short trip down the road and toured the RV Hall of Fame and Museum. If you are ever in the Elkhart area, this is definitely worth the stop. You get to see how far they have come in the RV world.

June 16th, we took off out of Indiana and headed into Ohio. We stayed at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton Ohio. We recognized that Izzy was failing quickly. We didn’t do a whole lot of sightseeing or many adventures during our time here. Mark had been coordinating along our route looking for a place to bring Izzy during our last few stops just in case things got to that final point. On the 19th we knew she was tired and was ready to leave this world for the next so we made an appointment for the next day - June 20th is when we took her to the clinic to say goodbye.

That was such a tough day, but we knew we did the right thing. She was having a very hard time standing on her own for any length of time over the past week. Her breathing was difficult and seeing her in this condition was tough. The Vet clinic we chose with some intense research was located in Monroe, MI. Suburban Animal Clinic of Monroe. They were so kind and worked with us in our need to get her in as soon as possible. It’s a day that no pet owner wants to relive, but I will say they managed to get us through with less pain and heartbreak than I was anticipating. They were able to help us coordinate getting her cremated and having her ashes back to us in a timely manner.

At 4 weeks old Izzy came into Teri’s life and stole her heart. She was the runt of the litter but something about her that day when Teri went to choose a puppy, caught Teri’s eye, and the rest as they say is history. Izzy was a constant companion over the last 15 yrs. whose unconditional love and happy demeanor were a continuous source of support and daily happiness in both difficult and joyous times.

She adopted Mark when he came into her life in 2010 and bonded with him during his cancer journey, keeping a watchful eye over him.

Over the last 3 years she grew into her role as a full-time Motorhome dog and liked to meet new people during our travels. Which was always a good ice breaker for Mom & Dad in meeting other Campers along the way! But other Dogs, well not so much unless they were male or smaller than her, then she would tolerate both. Living without her has been so darn heartbreaking, and the grief has come in waves, but we are managing, and thank GOD I took a ton of pictures so I can look back on all the memories and cherish the time that we had over the years.

Goodbye sweet girl, you may be gone, but you are never forgotten! We love you and miss you so much!