Remembering Our #FiveSibes Pupsters on Their 14th Birthday

January 19, 2022

Oh, my dear beautiful Pupsters. How I miss you three.

Thinking of you all on your 14th Birthday.

This is a day that was always filled with fun, anticipation, and lots of Husky hijinks as it is the birthdate of our FiveSibes Pupsters Chloe, Wolfie, and Bandit. Today, my pups would have turned 14. I expected to be celebrating with our last pup of the pack, my sweet boy Wolfie and remembering his sisters Chloe and Bandit...but, as you probably know by now, that was not to be. I had to help my boy journey across the Rainbow Bridge on December 4th due to worsening age-related health issues. I even have a few bags of special treats sitting here I have not had the heart to give away yet. I was in the process of ordering him some of his favorite Sassy's goodies as well.

Yup. Bandit was indeed the bandit of the pack!

Wolfie was never much into toys, not like Bandit! That girl loved to live up to her moniker by stealing all of the other Sibes' toys and laying on them! Losing her suddenly to hemangiosarcoma last year was tough, and losing Chloe so, so fast to acute liver disease in 2019 was also a gut smasher...but to now lose Wolfie, the last of not only the Pupster siblings, but also the last of my beloved FiveSibes. He was my baby boy (to know him is to know that he has always been a spoiled momma's boy and quite the baby always), is making today, his first birthday at the Bridge, heartbreakingly difficult.

My senior "baby" ~ spoiled much? You betchya!

I could go on and on about all the amazing, crazy, wild, happy, silly, and memorable times spent with my Pupsters, and how proud I am that they starred in a music video and were in several magazines! I am so thankful that a)we chose to bring all three home so they always had each other, and b) that my daughter and I had the privilege of being their caregivers. Raising FiveSibes together will always be something so special and memorable we did together, and c) that I have so many beautiful memories~the good and the oh-my-dog moments! I will always recall with such fondness, love, and pride how close they all were with each other.

Sibling nuzzles.

I learned so much from raising littermates together and from each of our FiveSibes. They will be etched in my heart forever.

These two were our "Bobbsey" twins~always together.

I won't lie...there will be tears today. Heck, there already have been as I am writing this. My heart still aches over Wolfie...it has not even been a full two months yet. And then the other losses are right there married to his loss for he represents them all. The love I have had for each, while different, is and always will be immense. I've talked about how their older brother Gibson was my heart dog. He absolutely was. But little bro Wolf tried his darndest to steal that title! I loved my boys so. The girls, while technically were my daughter's, shared that special place in my heart with my boys.

Who could resist these three adorable faces? Not me!

A good friend I met right here in Blogville all those years ago who also had a large pack and has faced such crushing losses as I, asked me a good question. Basically, is it hard to write about them right now. The first answer is Yes. Absolutely. My heart squeezes with every photo I look at, tears roll at the memories I will no longer be making, yet the smiles do come.

Cartoon versions of the Pupsters featured in my award-winning FiveSibes Tales books.

How can I smile, you might ask? The smiles are at the memories we DID make and boy, we made a lot! Wasn't it only yesterday I was playing out in our old backyard running around in the snow and having such a blast with them? And wasn't it only yesterday we celebrated their first birthday with ice cream cake, silly hats, and presents? Where in the hell did 14 years with the puppies go ~ and 16 years from when we first brought home our beautiful black and white 7 week old future alpha queen Harley ~ and 15 years when my fluffball Gibson came home???

My "sister-at-heart" just wrote me that she is glad I share my stories. Hearing that is a gift to me. Writing and sharing my stories is what I am all about. It keeps the memory of my FiveSibes alive. They are no longer physically here with me, but will be in my heart forever, and so will the joy the brought me. And that joy can be shared by telling some of the many wonderful moments that are now memories, and much-needed visits for my heavy heart.

My furry loves.

And two years ago, after losing Chloe and then Harley three months later, we made the decision to move out of our home of 30 years we built and raised our family in. My family was moving with us, so my big concern was for my two Huskies, Wolf and Bandit. They were then 12 years of age, and some may say well into their golden ages (I, of course, was always in a case of denial as they were forever Pupsters to me!), and moving could be upsetting for them. I fretted over it and planned it all...and the move went...smoothly! While they were a bit excitable, they were more interested in all the new smells and habits of our new place. New walks, new furpals, new sounds, new sleeping places, but they had each other.

As long as they were together, they could do anything.

And so together they investigated the new home and surroundings. We enjoyed campfires, walks, hugs from the human siblings, and dashes through a sprinkler in the summer. There was no yard fence yet, so my free range Huskies now had to be leashed, and guess what? They didn't mind! They walked like they were taught. (Okay, Wolfie was always the good walker out of the three. Bandit always was running the Iditarod in her head!) I even researched and bought a coupler leash so I could walk them together. They had to adjust to a few different ways of life than what they had at our previous house, but they did great. Until Bandit passed. Then Wolfie spiraled downhill. If you follow us here and on social media, you know I almost lost him. He was so depressed. It took work, determination, and medication to help turn him around. And he did!

Chloe was always a sweetheart and my-go model!

"Each happiness of yesterday is a memory for tomorrow."

~George W. Douglas

Pupsters having fun in the snow!

So, rather than wallow in sadness, which believe me is an easy thing to do when grieving so many losses...I am going to celebrate their lives today...and all the happy, fun, crazy, wild, silly times I had sharing life with five Siberian Huskies--three of them littermates--. Oh, and how fortunate have I been to have been able to do that; to be their FiveSibesMom.

A little of the wild, fun, and muddy times!

Happy Birthday my dear, sweet, crazy, goofy, amazing Pupsters. I hope you are all having ice cream cake and fun snow zoomies north of the Rainbow Bridge with big brother Gibson and "momma" Harley.

My dear Wolf. A special note for you on your first birthday at the Rainbow Bridge. I see and hear you still. How I wish you were here still to have ice cream cake, get treats, and enjoy the snow we have. How you loved the snow. It makes me miss you more. How I miss your freckled pink nose and beautiful blue eyes and your sweet wooos. Happy 14th, my buddy boy. Give some birthday Husky nuzzles to Chloe and Bandit for me. And please give a kiss to Gibbie and Harley. I love and miss you all, my beloved FiveSibes.