A little bit of background info. Our last cruise was in November of 2011 on the Emerald. That cruise was SO good that we booked it again as soon as we got home. Although a different itinerary, it is the same ship and we were hoping for another excellent experience. Over the course of the year while waiting for this cruise, life happened. Among the funny game of life were conflicts with my job and my spouse Brad's job and where exactly our future was. Luckily this worked out very successfully in our favor. Another was the sudden loss of one of our dogs. His name was Captain and he was a Jack Russell. We woke up one morning at the end of September and, out of the blue, he wasn't able to walk. The vet thought it might be a slipped disk or some kind of spine problem. They kept him overnight to monitor him, but as the day progressed they began to notice different changes. He was barking constantly, wasn't responding to reflex tests, staring at walls and was walking into things. The following day the doctors did an MRI on his brain. He had extreme swelling caused by encephalitis. They immediately started treatment, which had a 50/50 shot of working. It did not. After 4 days of not eating, drinking, or responding to meds, we put him to sleep. He was only 7 years old.

The doctor assured us that we did everything possible. His encephalitis was autoimmune which means his body did it to himself. And in the doctor's opinion, this is very rare. As was his symptoms which seemed to come out of nowhere and progress rapidly.

Captain (Cappy for short) was a part of our family for the past 6 years. We adopted him from a shelter when he was one year old and nursed him back to health. We don't want kids so Captain was essentially our 4-legged child. Those of you reading this who have owned pets (and subsequently lost them) know how hard it is. They become a part of your family. A part of you. To say we were devastated would be an understatement. Read more