In Loving Memory: Bambi

Team Tanzie, we have some tragic news that we are sharing quite a bit late. Sweet Bosnian rescue, Bambi, was abruptly taken from this world last May. She was just 5 years old. It’s taken us this long to post about it because it was so tragic and unexpected - Tanzie’s family had just decided to “foster fail” and adopt her a few months before. We are still just at a loss as to why she was taken from us so suddenly.

On May 15, 2020, Bambi was just running through the woods with Tanzie and her pack chasing squirrels, like she’d done a million times before, when she suddenly whimpered and collapsed. There were no signs of trauma or impact, and we didn’t see her hit anything when she was running, but there was clearly something wrong because he was having trouble breathing and had a large bulge in her chest. We rushed her to the emergency vet but just a few minutes before we arrived, she left us. The vet tried to resuscitate her, but it was too late. The vet suspected she had an aneurysm or ruptured her carotid artery, but couldn’t give us a full explanation as to what happened. She also had a clotting disorder so that may have contributed also.

As some of you might remember, Bambi came to the U.S. from Bosnia with her momma, Donna, in 2018. While Donna found her furever family pretty quickly, Bambi’s small quirks (jumping fences for sport, afraid of going out at night, anti-social in the evenings, hiding her face in photos) hindered her from matching with a family as quickly.

But perhaps it was meant to be that way, because after a few unsuccessful homes, Tanzie welcomed Bambi into her pack - first as a foster sister, but realistically, it was a “foster fail.” Bambi bonded with Tanzie’s dad, Walker, and became his little shadow. We called her our little shoe/slipper thief because when we weren't looking or at night, she would take just one shoe or slipper from a pair and move it into her bed or on the couch. She wouldn’t destroy it, just move it next to her.

Bambi loved being with Tanzie, Bella, Maya, and Odie - Being the ring-leader when it came to play time and letting everyone else chase her! We really feel she was meant to be with our family. Just a week before she passed, after two years of working with her on it, she even started going outside at night - she had made SUCH progress.

She was so young and healthy and had so much more life to live - and we had so much more love to give her. This is just a reminder that life is so precious and we need to be fully present in the moment and appreciate our loved ones at all times.

Miss Bambi...we’re so sorry it took us this long to publicly honor your beautiful soul and personality, but we hope you know it’s truly because it’s been that hard for us to accept. We hope you’re running free, sweet Bambi, and that Tanzie’s brother, Benji, and your puppy cousins greeted you with all the treats and wags you could ever imagine. May you be jumping over the highest of fences and running through all the ponds and creeks your heart desires - you deserve nothing less, “Bam-Bam.”