So today’s Bryce’s birthday…

… which means tomorrow is one year since Sally had the stroke. Of course, that’s been very much on my mind lately.

I had just taken Bryce out and was on my porch when a brown van, driving past stops in front of the house. The driver leans out the window and asks me something … since Bryce was barking as usual , I couldn’t hear WHAT so I picked Bryce up… and walked over….

“Do you still have Sally?”

I almost fell over – it was the owner of her litter sister Allie!

Allie is still alive!! At nearly 16, she’s survived THREE strokes – her thyroid function is completely dependent on medication and she has a touchy gut like her sister, but she’s still around. They didn’t think she’d pull through her most recent stroke but she did. He said she leans to the left a bit but it doesn’t seem to bother her much and she eats like a horse. They also have a younger sheltie now, around Jayda’s age (and they have a white mix breed male they’ve had for a while – he’s around the same age as Bryce).

Good news and really sad at the same time – brought up all the “woulda, shoulda, coulda’s ” and “what ifs” again. Had a pretty good cry over it…

Really strange timing though, isn’t it? They don’t live very far, but we haven’t had occasion to speak to each other in years!

Here’s an old picture of the sisters back when they were the “trouble twins” at around 5 weeks old, Allie’s on the left. About 2 days after I took this, Sally figured out how to climb out of that kiddie pool. Allie wasn’t far behind her.