A Tribute to my little Honka Ponka, Sooki Soo

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Sooki Soo Tribute Page

Welcome to my Sooki Soo Tribute Page I created this page initially out of my grief over our loss of a beloved member of my Family. The activity helped to ease the pain and reminded me how much a part of my life Sooki Soo had been. I have expanded and developed on it as part of my participation in the Chat Forum on the PetLoss Website. By sharing our love for our pet with other people who have also experienced a loss of a beloved pet, we bond and heal together. Finding the PetLoss Website when I was in the throes of my grief was a lifesaver. I can't even begin to describe the absolute feeling of loss and grief I was experiencing during this period of my life. I honor the memory of my little "special-special" Sooki Soo here. I hope and pray that if you are here, you find some comfort and joy in seeing Sooki Soo. If you had ever met her, you would have LOVED HER! and she would have LOVED YOU right back! I will see you in Heaven Sooki Soo. You keep the couch warm and I will have a special scooby snack for you when I get there! Sooki Soo joined my Family in September, 1995 At the time I lived in Denver, Colorado Sooki Soo was the cutest little puppy! I loved (and still do) Sooki Soo very much. She had a wonderful personality and was able to communicate with me very effectively. I always knew when Sooki Soo wanted to go outside to take care of her business, or when she wanted a treat, or to be petted on the head or stomach. She loved it when you paid attention to her. She knew exactly how to get what she wanted. She had little routines depending on what she was trying to accomplish. Sooki Soo knew how to Sit, Give Paw Paw, Give Kiss Kiss and speak on command. She knew the difference between her left paw and right paw. If she tryed to give me her right paw, I would say, give me that one and point to her left paw Boom, she would give her left paw. Please be sure to take a look at the pictures of Sooki Soo in the Photo Album area. Sooki Soo passed on from my life on Jan. 25th 2006. She had suffered a stroke on Jan. 24th. The Vet told me that even if they operated that the prognosis was not good for her recovery. The stroke caused bleeding in Sooki Soo's brain. Sooki Soo was 11 years old when we lost her. I would not trade those 11 years for anything. She just started stumbling around on Jan 24th like she was drunk. She walked into walls, stumbled. I thought she might have an ear infection and had lost her balance. I brought her to the veterinarian the next day and she was blind. She couldn't see. She went into emergency surgery. She had her stomach purged. Placed on antibiotics and some other things the vet recommended. Finally, they determined she had a stroke. Her brain was bleeding. I found Petloss and talked to people. I was very upset. Almost panicking. One of the people there was a vet. She said sometimes the bleeding just stopped and that was it. Or, it was fatal. I decided with the Vet to wait one day and see what happened. The next day, she had gotten worse. Her breathing was very heavy. Her tongue was hanging out. Her legs were getting rigid and stiff. I had to make the decision to have her put to sleep by a fatal injection or try to save her by spending thousands of dollars on a brain surgery that would most likely fail. I made the difficult decision with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart overflowing with grief. The veterinarian (vet) is a very nice lady She has a room where there are candles and dimmed lights. I spent 20 minutes saying goodbye to her. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I cried very hard and deeply. I cried almost like a little child would cry. I told her how much I loved her. How special she had been all the time she had been with me. How much I would miss her and how I would see her again. I said some prayers. It was very very difficult. I was so overcome with grief and emotion. The vet came in, I held her and kissed her and petted her and hugged her and the vet gave her the shot. She passed on almost right away. The vet said she was breathing easier and seemed more relaxed than she had been for the last 36 hours. Sooki Soo knew I was there with her. The vet clipped off some of Sooki Soo's whiskers and I kept those. I want to get them cast in a plastic cube. She also made a clay cast of Sooki Soo's paw print. I got that from her a few days later. I made arrangements to have Sooki Soo cremated. I wanted to bring her home and bury her in the backyard but I just couldn't do it. I was so sad. It was overwhelming. I have gotten her ashes back and I want to find a very special urn for her. I spent a lot of time over the next few days crying a lot, going to the Petloss website and chatting and building the website for Sooki Soo. I am still sometimes very sad that my special little girl is not here with me anymore.

A Short Story about Sooki Soo

Sooki Soo the wonder Dog, Part 1 Well, My little baby girl of 11 years, myr beloved friend and companion has passed on. What can you say when you are in the throes of grief over the loss of something special, deeply cherished and sorely missed. I would never have imagined when Sooki Soo first came into my life that she was to obtain the place in my heart and thoughts that she ultimately accomplished. Reminiscing over the last 11 years, I recall so many different events. Funny, sad, ironic, distressing, sad. I could never expand upon the various events to adequately communicate in an understandable manner how deeply her actions percolated into the depths of my soul and conciousness. I purchased Sooki Soo from a breeder north of Denver Colorado in 1995. This was before I knew anything about puppy mills. I don't imagine it was a puppy mill in the sense that they brutalized the animals. They were just some people who bred as many dogs as possible, with the lowest associated expenditures, for a living. Sooki Soo had no real congenital, genetic defects that your average pug would have. She suffered from skin problems and nasal problems. Overall, she was sound and healthy. I was and am convinced the longest lasting ill effect suffered by Sooki Soo from coming out of this enviroment was "kennel stress". She was an extremely high strung dog. Almost to the point of neurotic. No, never mind almost. She was and could be very neurotic. That character defect however, gave her character, and a character she was. Through and through. I lived in a small, rented, Condominium in Denver. At the time, I also had a cat named Boo-Boo, she was a black Persian with some white on her chest, paws, chin. Boo-Boo was around 8 years old at the time. I had hoped to introduce Boo-Boo and Sooki Soo and that they would get along and we would all live happily ever after. Wrong! Fat chance. Boo-Boo hissed at Sooki Soo. Sooki Soo went berserk! I have never seen a puppy in all my life, before of after, run as fast as Sooki Soo could. I had a futon with a straight, sloped back. It wasn't very comfortable to sit in but I would open it and lay down and watch TV. Sooki Soo would literally run around the coffee table onto the couch and across the back sideways! It was hilarious. If I had a video camera then, I would have won the $100,000 America's Funniest Home Videos Show Award hands down. No Contest! Have you ever seen a pug run when they are excited? They hump their back like they are getting ready to make a bowel movement. Then, they move the back legs at the same time and the front legs at the same time. Exactly opposite of the way they normally walk. Right front, left rear. Left front, right rear. Mouth slightly open, teeth exposed in a maniac smile, tongue lolling off to the side, ears flapping wildly behind her. 1 time around, 2 times around, 3 times around..... It was hilarious and amazing. Anyway, back to the infamous introduction of Sooki Soo and Boo-Boo. So Boo-Boo hisses, Sooki Soo get the hackles on her back up, eyes bug out, lips purse, woowoowooowooowooo. Zip, off she goes. 90 miles an hour. Now Boo-Boo had been semi-abused before I got her from a friend. Sprayed with a water pistol while everyone was partying. Took 2 years to get the cat to trust me. So Boo-Boo was kind of skittish already. Zip, off she goes, into the Master Bedroom. So I separated then from that day on. Boo-Boo lived in the bedroom, Sooki Soo lived everywhere else. Shortly afterward, while I was out one day, before I knew that it was, uh, maybe not OK to leave puppies unattended in the house with the ability to roam free. Sooki Soo decided that she wanted to go downstairs, to the apartment below us. So she dug in the carpet. Then she dug some more and some more and some more......The hole in the carpet and the underlayment pad was 36 inches side to side. With the plywood showing clearly all the way around. AHHHHHHHHHHH! What did you do you little maniac! Say goodbye to the $650.00 security deposit. This was the first of many large, unexpected monetary expenditures I incurred over the next 11 years. Amazingly, it didn't diminsh my love for her on little bit. Yes, it hurt, financially, but, she was a nut case, she couldn't help it, and it was partially my fault anyway. This was also one of the first of many hard lessons I learned in my mental file of "things not to do when you own a little puppy".