Hi Dr. Forslund,
Nice to hear from you. We are doing OK. Caroline was my son’s best friend. She was always there waiting for him and ready to just sit with him and love him. She slept with him every night, so that was a difficult transition. We do talk about her a lot, which helps.
We adopted Caroline from the Santa Ana shelter almost 12 years ago, when she was 10 months old. We'd seen her on an earlier visit, but the kids wanted a much younger puppy, so we kept looking. When we returned a few weeks later she was right up front: ”Dog of the Week" and ready to take home. And so home with us she went. She was a 65-pound ball of energy—all legs and wildly stubborn, and so beautiful. There was nothing she wouldn't chew or run after. Thankfully she mellowed over the years, and became such an integral part of our family. She was always right there with us, in the middle of whatever we were doing. She especially loved being around the kids and all their friends, and she accompanied us on nearly every family vacation. We keep thinking she's right around the corner, waiting with a wagging tail and loving face. It's still hard to believe she's not with us.
Here is a photo of Caroline in her earlier years—before the grey hair. : ) Surprising to us all, we have already welcomed a new puppy into our house. My sister has worked with animals for years, so receives a lot of bulletins about those needing homes. She sent us a link about Ruby, an 8-month-old pit bull that had been literally starved by her owners. She's 47 pounds now and just 30 pounds when they found her wandering the streets. She's so sweet and mellow. The timing seemed OK because Ruby was not scheduled to be adopted for another month or so. She was anemic and still needed to be spayed. That made sense for us; it would give us time to get ready. Then they changed their minds and said she could go home right away—gulp! We almost waited, but decided we needed to suck it up rather than make her stay at the shelter any longer. Plus Ruby is a real sweetie so it's impossible not to fall for her!
And that's life at the Kristiansens. Dr. Forslund, thank you for how you helped us say goodbye to Caroline. We appreciated your gentle, supportive nature and that we were not rushed through any of the procedure. You did everything you could to make a difficult time more than tolerable, you made it memorable. We would recommend you to anyone, as you are wonderful at what you do.
Debi Kristiansen
Anaheim