Hannibal October 25, 2007 - September 19, 2009

Hannibal was my brother Chris's dog. He was one of Lady's puppies and he was Bella's brother. He was born right on my bedroom floor and he was the youngest of her 4 puppies. We could always tell him apart from the other dogs because he had the spot over one eye and spots on his back. We originally named him Trouble because he was always getting into trouble. Bella was always the first to do something but he was always right behind her.


(yes that is my very pregnant with twins belly in the pictures)
Chris bought Hannibal from us and then found out he could not have pets at the condo he had just bought. My mom agreed to keep Hannibal for a while till he could take him. We had given her a puppy named Jack so Hannibal had his brother with him. Hannibal slept with my brother Daniel so he became part Daniel's dog. Chris still came over to play with Hannibal all the time.

Last Wednesday Hannibal had been just fine nothing out of the ordinary then on Thursday my mom noticed while he was running outside he fell down and he did it several times. When he did it again right in front of her she discovered he was fainting. She made an appointment with the vet for first thing the next morning. By that night he was very listless. The next morning Chris and my mom took him to the vet where the vet told them Hannibal had a autoimmune disease the same one our first dog Maggie had died from. His immune system was attacking his red blood cells. Unfortunately it is very common in cocker spaniels, and can be genetically past down, which really upset me. The vet gave them some medication but it was going to take several days to start working and he didn't know if Hannibal was going to live that long. Hannibal made it through Friday and on Saturday we planned on coming over to my mom's house to see Hannibal. I called my mom as we were walking out the door to tell her we were coming and she said Hannibal was asleep and might be in a coma. She also said that on Friday Jack had kept cleaning his brothers face but on Saturday he was scared of Hannibal so she figured he knew something she didn't. When we were about half way there Carlye called me and told me she had just called my parents house and Hannibal had died. As I have said I am a big time animal person and Hannibal was like one of my children so this was really hard for me to hear. I guess they had Hannibal in the laundry room and Jack outside and after he died my dad went to check on Jack and he was flipping out like he knew what had happened. We got there and everyone was crying. Isaac went to my grandparents house to get an old quilt to bury Hannibal in and Chris and Daniel started digging the hole. I tried to explain to Hazel what had happened but I don't think she understood (which is ok). I went down to the laundry room and said goodbye to Hannibal which was really hard. Isaac got back and helped finish digging the hole (the second Bradshaw dog he has helped bury). Everyone went to the laundry room (except the kids) and said one last goodbye and then Chris wrapped him up in the quilt and took him outside and we buried him, next to the three cats and dog already out there, oh and all the bees (a weird childhood thing we did) ha ha ha. Another funny thing, and I can say it is funny because I don't live there, is that while digging the grave they somehow cut the phone line! My parents have no phone or internet right now.
Jack, Bella and Lady are getting a lot of extra loves and kisses and treats. I keep telling my mom to make sure Jack sleeps with someone every night because he is used to sleeping with his brother.Here are a couple of pictures Daniel took of Hannibal before he died.