September 5, 2001 to July 22, 2018
We are approaching the one year anniversary of Hannah passing and I've noticed I did not make any posting about her being gone. Three deaths in thirteen months really hit hard.
Hannah came to us at just the right moment. The kids had asked for years about getting a dog. When we were ready, we looked at shelter dogs; the right dog just wasn't there. Our neighbor's Dad was visiting from Wisconsin and we watched his dogs with careful observation. They were fun and did a lot of interacting with him. We read up on the breed; watched the newspaper for ads and one day a litter appeared. We called and was told she had one puppy left but we had to get there before the other family who was also interested arrived. So we raced to Dallas, OR and the rest is history. I think the stars all aligned because as it turned out, Hannah's birthday was the same as Brianna's, twenty years apart.
Hannah was our first Vizsla and the catalyst for our desire to add more Vizslak to the family. She was just the perfect dog for us; once we were passed the nipping and potty training, she was so great!
Hannah was a true hunter - she would sit in the yard for hours watching the squirrels in the trees and on the fences while we lived in Oregon. She excelled at passing her AKC Junior Hunter title and even gained an extra pass when she filled in at a hunt test when Marley was sidelined for coming into season. She lived to run in the field to find birds and always enjoyed her times on Sauvie Island and at Paul and Kirsten's Field of Dreams in Sweet Home. When we moved to CA, she also enjoyed her time at Scott and Deanna's in Los Banos. We loved watching her tail when she found her birds and the way she would quarter a field looking for them. She was happiest in the field.
Hannah loved to swim. Almost a natural, she enjoyed going to Nana's in San Diego. Sometimes we couldn't get her to come out of the pool; she loved it that much. In her later years, she became unsure of herself and those around her in the pool. So, she swam less and less. She did enjoy the hot tub with Marc on a few occasions. I think the warmth felt good.
Hannah was an excellent Auntie to two litters of puppies - Marley's and Paloma's. She loved playing with all the puppies.
Hannah smelled good, all the time. She never had that doggy odor and Marc and I, more than once buried our faces into her. She was love and comfort all wrapped into one dog.
Hannah was not one for arguments. She would not get into it with another dog; no growl or bark, nor bite. In her later years, she would play a game with us, the kids and grandkids that if we tried to get her feet, she would open her mouth and try to get us. If she ever connected during this game, you were too close. I'm sure she was more annoyed in her senior years but we still enjoyed playing with her.
Hannah loved to play games and chase the ball. We would play a game on the bed where I would slap my hands down and she'd jump to where they were. I would slap them down on the other side, and she would jump to where they were. We did this dance together a few times and then called it a day. She also liked to try to get my hands when I'd slide them under my leg in her direction. I don't know if she ever connected my hands to me since she couldn't see where they were coming from.
Hannah was Marc's heart dog. She helped him through a very difficult ten months of unemployment. We took her to the dog park many times during the time he was off work. Hannah was rolled by a black dog one time; from then on she didn't like black dogs. Funny how that worked. There were only two dog parks we actually enjoyed and when they made the one on Stafford Road smaller, we stopped going. The other one we'd go to was Gabriel Park which was closer to home. Once we had more than two dogs, we didn't go much. When we moved to Hollister, we'd go to the one by the airport; it was mostly deserted all the time.
Hannah tolerated the move to California very well even though she was 13 at the time. In March 2015, she had a liposarcoma removed from her rear hip bone area. We had a scare with the first attempt to remove it as the vet surgeon used different anesthesia than we've used in the past. His second attempt was much better using the "normal" anesthesia and removal was successful. In the past, she'd had a soft tissue tumor removed from her elbow. When she was younger, she had numerous skin outbreaks while her immune system matured, and a few ear treatments for yeast. All things considered, she was really healthy all her life. In her later years, we started using stairs for her to get up and down off the bed. She would have been a happy camper to just continue to jump off the bed but at three feet off the ground, we wouldn't allow it. She scared me to death that she'd injure herself. When we moved in with Bree and family while waiting for the house to be built, we purchased a shorter mattress so she didn't have to use stairs or jump at all.
When Hannah was about 2 years old, I thought about doing agility with her. So to prepare, I took her to the vet for some x-rays. Her spine was in great shape but one of her elbows appeared to have extra bony growth meaning she could develop arthritis at a later date. We did not pursue agility but we did add a joint supplement to her diet and for the most part, she took it for the rest of her life. When she was older we used Fresh Factors by Springtime for her mental stability, CBD oil for movement and Honest Kitchen Bone Broth to give her just a little more nutrients. She was never too picky, well, once we stopped free feeding her as a pup. Her last two years saw her pacing more so we added melatonin morning and night. This stopped her pacing and allowed her to rest more.
We had many great adventures with Hannah over the years. Most of our trips were to San Diego, but we also made it to the places Marc worked - Wenatchee (Crescent Bar), and Powell Butte (Brasada Ranch). We took trips to the mountains to enjoy the snow and to the beach to enjoy the sand and water. She was happy wherever we were.
Not the end of the story . . . . we will write it in the sky! Love and miss you, Our Sweet Girl!!
