Stella – Forever In Our Hearts.

This was an emotionally exhausting week in our household – we lost our sweet little Stella who was a very big part of the fabric of our family. Stella joined our family nearly 13 years ago when she was just a three month old bundle of sweetness and cute beyond belief, we were told at our vet she was the cutest puppy they’d ever seen and in all honesty I have to completely agree!

I had wanted a Boston Terrier for a very long time but could never adopt from Boston Buddies when we were renting, then when we bought a house they wouldn’t let families with children adopt. My mom wanted to get our son a puppy for Christmas when he was two years old, so we searched high and low to find a Boston that wasn’t from a puppy farm. I found a regular guy on a pet adoption site who just happened to have two Bostons that had puppies, so we drove over the day after Christmas. Stella was last one available, it was clearly meant to be that she belonged to our family – so we took her home.

You might remember this photo from a back to school campaign we did a few years ago

She was a very special little girl who made everyone smile with her beautiful little face and spunky personality – she also had an incredibly deep soul which made me believe she had already lived multiple lives. She was stubborn (its the breed) but well behaved, she was sweet and loyal and quite literally the best dog we could have hoped for.

She had been perfectly healthy her whole life until one day in February of last year I took her in to see the vet about one of her legs which had been bothering her and he noticed her stomach was distended. I took her in to a specialty veterinary clinic and was informed that she had congenital heart failure which is very prevalent in Boston Terriers. Fortunately she was older when she developed it as the average age is 7-8 and she was 11 when diagnosed.

We were told she would likely live between 1-2 years and she made it to exactly a year and a half. Stella was on a substantial amount of daily medication which she took easily with the help of Pill Pocket treats, and they helped her live a fairly normal life until she took a turn for the worse last week – she passed on her own mid morning while my husband and I were home.

Me, Stella & her sister Kona – 4th of July 2021

The outpouring of love and recollections of fond memories from friends, family and neighbors who knew her is so touching – she really had an effect on everyone who met her; humans and dogs alike – we had a few friends whose dogs wouldn’t play with any dog other then Stella.

Rest easy Stella Bella, you will be missed but I know that you will forever be watching over us

~ until we meet again xoxoxo