On 9-20-2008 about 11:00 am our beloved friend Holly Bear departed this life rather unexpectedly. One day earlier on Friday morning Holly had a bad seizure. We took her to the vet clinic where they took x-rays and diagnosed her with Hemangiosarcoma, a type of cancer. They gave us some medication to put her on to control the seizures and sent us home. They gave Holly roughly 6 months to live. Apparently this type of cancer is mostly incurable. Unfortunately, over night her condition worsened as her seizures became more frequent. By Saturday morning she was in much worse condition, barely responding to us and unable to walk, drink water or do anything for herself. This was not expected at all. I was looking forward to having 6 more months to enjoy with Holly and get prepared for her departure. Because of her condition, we were forced to make the extremely difficult decision to have her put down. This was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Holly Bear was with us for 10 1/2 wonderful years.  She will be missed terribly and never forgotten.

 

Holly Bear was born on March 2, 1998. She was a pure bred Samoyed. Her parents were Sir Samuel of Collinwood and Brandy Schnee of Dixie. We learned of a breeder who had puppies for sale. They were from up north somewhere. We made arrangements to meet them halfway which ended up being a Cracker Barrel in Madison, WI. They brought with them all of the puppies they had available, Holly had many brothers and sisters. We sat in the grass at the Cracker Barrel parking lot and played with the puppies until we made a decision on one. There was something special about Holly that we fell in love with and we ended up bringing her home with us that day.

 

When Holly was 1 year old, we started taking her to an obedience class at Quansa, a training facility near Beloit, WI. We had a lot of fun working with Holly at the classes. There were lots of other dogs at the class, it was a neat experience for all of us. On 6-23-99 Holly graduated from the class.

 

On Holly’s 4^th birthday we decided to have a birthday party. We got a cake and put party hats on Holly and Libby and had a real party. We would cut the cake and give the dogs each a piece. She would even get birthday presents to open. It was great fun and was something we continued to do for each of Holly’s birthdays. For Holly’s 6^th birthday we had one more guest than usual. Abby got to come in the house and join us for the party. She lives outside and usually don’t get to come in the house. I am not sure why but she never came to any of the other birthday parties. For Holly’s 9^th birthday party Lizz made special hats for everyone to wear. Usually we all wore party hats you get from the store but that year Lizz made the hats from scratch, that was a nice touch. For Holly’s 10^th birthday we wanted to do something very special so we booked the party at a place called the Dog Zone in Janesville, WI. This is an indoor facility where you can take your dogs to play. They put on a very nice party for us. We invited our friends and family and their dogs. We ended up with 23 people and 12 dogs in attendance. They provided a birthday cake and other treats and Holly received presents to open. It was an amazing time and a very unique way to celebrate Holly’s birthday. I am really thankful that we were able to have this special party for Holly as it turns out this was her last birthday with us. It was a day I will never forget.

 

Christmas was another occasion that was special for Holly as she always received some Christmas presents too. It was a lot of fun to give her a present and watch her open it on her own.

 

Holly was not the kind of dog that you could let loose in the yard and expect to keep her with you. If she got loose she would take off and not come back, it was very difficult to catch her if that happened. Because of this we always had to keep her on a leash. When Holly was 2 we moved to my grandparent’s house and had the back yard fenced in. This was the first time we were able to allow Holly to run free outside.   It was great to be able to let her run free and have fun. After we moved to town we were once again unable to let her loose because we didn’t have a fenced in yard at the new house. For 2 ½ years we lived without a fence. The spring of 2008 we had an underground fence installed and once again were able to give Holly her freedom. It took a bit of training to get her used to the new invisible fence but her and the other dogs all learned quickly and it turned out to be a fantastic investment. The last 5 months of Holly’s life she was able to enjoy herself playing freely in our yard with the other dogs. I am so glad that we purchased that fence when we did and she was able to enjoy it as she did.

 

The last couple years of Holly’s life we started taking her and the other dogs to dog parks, mostly the park in Janesville, WI. It was great fun to see Holly interact with other dogs at the park. We also took her to a park in Monroe a few times and once to a park in Freeport, IL. At the park in Freeport they had an agility course setup. I tried to get Kokomo to go on some of the things in the course but he wouldn’t do it. I then took Holly in and she would walk right up the ramp thing they had, it was really neat to see her do that. I was excited to take her back to that park again but unfortunately we never got the chance. 

Holly was a wonderful companion and my best friend. She was also my baby and was spoiled accordingly. I loved her more than you can ever imagine. The 10 ½ years I got to spend with her were amazing. She was such an integral part of my life and our family; she was a true family member. The photos and videos of her are priceless and will be with me for the rest of my life. She may be gone now but the many memories of her will be with me forever.

 

 

Holly's owners were Chris and Julie Schilling.