When Tragedy Strikes Close To Home

By Pilar Kuhn

The news and social media channels will be flooded for days with news about the tragedy at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.  I read some posts that people had crossed the finish line five minutes before the first explosion while others alerted family and friends they were no where near the marathon route. Ultimately this made me appreciate our dog show community. We are a close-knit group of people who love dogs and competition. When tragedy strikes close to home, our community comes together in ways I wish we could remember on those “normal” days.

The past few months at our house have been tense.  You may have read that our bitch Danica had issues with her pregnancy. Understanding the clinical reasons why she lost her litter, we had to deal with the emotional side of her situation.  The highs and lows of hearing, “Well, she’s pregnant, but they don’t look like normal embryos,” left me driving home in a daze.  The next two weeks gave us much worry and I wasn’t prepared for hearing, “She’ll need to stay here for a week or two,” after the third ultrasound. I got teary eyed. I didn’t fully understand the situation at hand and I did not go to the clinic that morning expecting to drive home without our girl.  I hated being blindsided like that. I hated having to try to explain to my husband why I would be driving home without our girl. I hate “bad news” surprises and I’m sure I’m not alone.

As the technician wrote “pyo prevention” to accompany Danica back to their overnight area, I cringed. The mention of pyometra to any dog owner can set off internal warning sirens as loud as what was heard on the streets of Boston.  Our bitch did not yet have pyo, but I had to leave her in more than capable hands to help prevent it from happening. After I called a few friends and colleagues, I took to the social media channels to express my concern about leaving her at the clinic. I wanted to cry uncontrollably. I wanted to scream at anyone or anything, but didn’t because no one was to blame. I kept waking up at 3:30 am night after night and couldn’t fall back asleep. I was a cranky mess.

And then I got an email from a fellow Bouvier breeder. She had seen my post on Facebook about Danica’s situation and chose to email me that she just found out her bitch was going through a similar scenario. She was about a week behind in discovery and treatments. We were in this together from afar.

I cannot tell you how much it meant to me to have another long-time successful breeder reach out to me about our situation.  We kept track of each other’s vet visits.  We compared copious notes about treatments, conversations with vets, “what ifs” and potential “next steps”.

What I didn’t realize? I was unaware how many of my friends followed the story as it unfolded over the next three weeks.  I was touched every time someone asked me out of the blue, “How is Danica doing? I’ve been following your ordeal.”

The Boston Marathon tragedy exposed that power of social media. I watched strangers run to help strangers.  I observed friends reaching out via Facebook and Twitter and posts by total strangers confirmed their safety. All thanks to social media. Whether tragedy strikes close to home or on a global level, one thing comes to mind. We are never alone and we never have to go through any tragedy by ourselves. The unconditional love and antics of our canine companions keep putting smiles on our faces day after day in spite of trials and tribulations. Comfort Dogs and their handlers traveling to Boston to help in the aftermath are a blessing to all. So we’re hugging our own dogs in thankfulness that they are innocent and have no idea what we all faced dealing with Monday’s news from downtown Boston. And we are most thankful for all of our friends and colleagues that care about us, “dog people” or not.

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Posted by Tom on Apr 18 2013. Filed under Blog Post, Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.