After winning the hearts of thousands when her story went viral in 2022, Annie the dog took her dying breaths in late June.
When TODAY initially fulfilled Annie, the then-19-year-old black Labrador retriever mix was finishing a container list after her initial owners surrendered her to a shelter. The veterinarian informed her brand-new foster family — buddies and roomies Lauren Siler and Lisa Flores — that she likely had one month to live. She would go on to live one year and a handful of days longer.
When Siler and Flores brought her home, they developed a list for Annie filled with things to achieve in nevertheless long she had actually left.
Annie had a birthday celebration (they didn’t understand her real birth date), she had an expert photoshoot, renowned Christmas in July (and got to commemorate genuine Christmas as her golden days continued), went on a hamburger trip, painted a photo and much more things. Most just recently, she “made it to all 50 states” after individuals help up images of her throughout the U.S.
“It was starting to get hard to come up with things to add to the bucket list,” Siler says with a laugh. “We were like, ‘Gosh, what are we going to do now? Who knows, she’s done so much.’”
Annie died on June 25a day after Siler, Flores and Stephanie Rowe and Duke Hemstreet from the not-for-profit The Pawerful Rescue tossed the sweet puppy a one year “Annie-versary” celebration.
“Over 50 people came,” Siler says, including that it was “crazy” the number of individuals who had just recognized Annie through Instagram wished to belong to the event.
“Seeing these strangers come and shake my hand and pet Annie, it was a really neat experience,” Siler says. “She would be laying down to let people pet her, she’d let people take pictures with her. And then every single dog that walked in, she got up and went over and greeted them. It was the sweetest thing.”
“She was still so full of life and looked forward to the next day and having so many adventures that she went on,” Siler informs TODAY.com after Annie’s death. “We joked and we said all the time, ‘I wonder if she knows just how many people know about her and love her.’”
The day after her celebration, nevertheless, Siler and Flores saw a modification in Annie. They might inform she remained in “distress” and took her to the veterinarian to run some tests. Doctors saw that Annie was puffed up and her stomach had actually done a 360-degree flip.
According to Siler, surgical treatment was her only alternative however the treatment and healing would have been hard for her. “We weren’t going to put her through that,” Siler says. “It would have been selfish of us to do that.”
The choice was a psychological one for the good friends who had actually invited Annie into their home with open arms.
“Her little head was just in my lap the entire time and I could see it in her eyes, she was telling me, ‘It’s OK, you know, this was how it was supposed to happen,’” Siler remembers , getting psychological. “‘It was a full year and I’m OK’. It was a really sweet moment that we got with her and it was just very affirming that we did the right thing. It was very peaceful and then we came home to an empty house and it was very sad.”
Part of Siler thinks that Annie seemed like she “owed” it to her fans to make it to her celebration, satisfy her and state hi. “She did that and she kind of was just like, ‘I’ve done everything I needed to do.’ It was definitely true Annie style. She went out with a bang.”
Having Annie taught Siler, “There’s so much life worth living, you just have to live it.”
“She inspired so many people to keep going,” she says. “You can have a really bad hand dealt to you and you can turn it around in a matter of a day.”
Since cultivating Annie, Siler has actually been on an objective to motivate individuals to help senior and dogs in requirement. Shortly after they cultivated Annie in 2015, they likewise took in an 18-year-old male black laboratory called Tippy who died in mid-January of this year.
“My motto through all of this has just been: If you can’t adopt, foster. If you can’t foster, volunteer. If you can’t volunteer, donate. And if you can’t donate, advocate,” she says. “There are so many people that have shown us that they want to do good in (the) animal rescue world and that there is something for everybody to do. You just have to be willing to figure out what that is for you.”
This post was initially released on TODAY.com
