World's Best Dog Mom Creates One Last "Blizzard" for Her Dying, Snow-Loving Dog
Earlier this month, proud dog mother and animal shelter employee Ashley Niels was devastated to learn that her 12-year-old dog Spunky was suffering from hemangiosarcoma, a deadly type of cancer. The vet suggested she put the poor pup down to sleep so he wouldn't suffer, so Niels set an appointment for the evening following his diagnosis, according to The Dodo.
With the appointment in place, Niels suddenly remembered something very important: She had once promised her pup that he would get to see snow again. Niels had adopted Spunky while she was in college in Wisconsin, and the thick-coated dog had loved playing in the town's snow drifts for hours on end. But in 2008, the pair moved to Austin, Texas - and snowfall in Texas was practically nonexistent.
Enter Niels's coworkers from the Austin Animal Center: Knowing how much Spunky meant to Niels, a group of volunteers and staff from the shelter pitched in to rent a snow machine. They brought the machine to Niels's house, and Spunky was able to enjoy a manmade snowstorm in his own Texas yard.
"To be honest, I think Spunky mostly sat there in the blowing 'snow' to humor me and make me happy," Niels told The Dodo. "But the real beauty behind the whole thing was how this entire village enveloped us in love and pulled all of this together in hours so that I could give my boy a last wish, if you will. I can't tell you how touched I was."
Then, in a unexpected turn of events, Spunky's vet had to cancel his appointment the following day due to an emergency. They rescheduled, but when the time came, Niels couldn't get herself to go through with it - Spunky seemed happy, she told The Dodo, and she didn't want to force him into saying goodbye.
Niels isn't sure how many days Spunky has left, but she's giving him all of her time, love and kisses for as long as she can. In the end, she's just incredibly grateful for all the memories that she's shared with her dog - and the way her community pulled together to make Spunky's last moments great. "How beautiful is it that a group of people made it snow in the Texas summer?" she told The Dodo. "All for the love of a dog. My dog. My Spunky."
[h/t The Dodo]
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