Hi! I am JM, Bailey’s mommy… some of you also know me as DrawingMom (IG: @DrawingMomArt, and IG: @DrawingMom if you would like to follow me and my furry babies).

If you would like to follow me on Facebook: Bailey Be Good! and DrawingMom.

I hope to share some photos here eventually, of not only Bailey, but of our Angel Nala, and our boys Jax and kitty Miso. But for now, it’s all about Bailey.

BaileyBeGood.com and Bailey:

I have had BaileyBeGood.com almost as long as I had Bailey – we rescued her at 3 months old, in 2010. Now that my webhosting company has closed, I just couldn’t let Bailey Be Good go just yet. I did not want to lose her again.

If you have not heard, I am sad to say that my sweet Bailey girl is no longer with us.

March 16, 2023 was the day we said goodbye… she was 3 months shy of her 13th birthday. We were lucky to have her for that long.

We let our sweet girl go and my heart will always be broken. It’s because of Bailey that I started BaileyBeGood and I have met so many wonderful friends over the years because of her.

Bailey Boo (or B as we would often call her)… was beautiful, so, so smart, and she always made me feel safe.. She was my heart dog and I will miss her forever. ❤️ Read on to learn more about Bailey’s last days and our discovery.

We adopted our Bailey girl from a rescue in Sept 2010 – she became sister to our 12 year old Nala who had never been around other dogs. They became close and when we had to let Nala go at 16 years, we adopted our boy Jax to keep Bailey company. We also adopted our boy kitty Miso in January, 2021 when he was 9 months old.

Bailey was the center of our lives – she involved herself in EVERYTHING, no matter what it was. She enjoyed just being with us, going on walks, watching over her siblings, and she had this uncanny knack of reading our faces, especially if we were sad. She hated it when we cried. She would come over and try to make us feel better. She also made me feel very protected.

Our Bailey had been having issues for about a year – her symptoms came on slowly, like first her not squatting correctly when going potty, then hind end weakness, then most recently front leg weakness which made it difficult for her to get up sometimes. Her front legs also bothered her. We thought she had a skin issue, so she was treated for that.

On March 14, 2023 we brought Bailey for a consultation with a neurologist. The doctor felt that Bailey’s issues may have something to do with her brain, and the only way to know was to do an MRI. The doctor also thought that Bailey no longer had vision in her right eye. We had to know what the problem was so we could help her. We left her there so they could do an x-ray — thankfully there were no masses to be found in her chest.

The next day we brought Bailey in for an MRI. The results showed a large meningioma wrapped around her brain stem near her spinal cord, leading into her cervical spine. This is what was causing all her issues, including what we thought was itchy front legs. Our vet thinks that her legs may have been tingling and numb at times, which caused her to lick them raw.

We were hoping to bring Bailey home after the MRI and continue to make her comfortable, but after the MRI she never regained use of her legs. She stayed in the ER section of the hospital and later that afternoon the doctor told me she seemed to be doing better — that she was able to stand for a short time and I should come to pick her up about 4pm. When I left at 3:45 to go pick her up, I was about 2 minutes away when the doctor called and told me that she again couldn’t get up. They suggested another night in the hospital. I was upset but I wanted to do what was best for Bailey. Thursday morning I got a call from the doctor telling me that she was not doing well — she still couldn’t move.

Our girl had held on long enough – she would have been 13 in June 2023, which is old for a dog her size. We decided to bring her down the street to our vet of about 20 years (they already knew what was going on) and we were able to spend the next couple of hours with her… we even brought our other dog Jax and kittyMiso to stay with her. We knew Bailey was ready – she just looked so exhausted. Our girl made the most difficult decision for us and so we let her go peacefully on March 16, 2023, with the doctor who cared for her since she was a 3 month old puppy.

Part of me feels guilty for putting her through the MRI – she would probably still be here if we did not do it. I am sure that all the movement must have further compressed her spine which is why she was unable to walk afterward. But I also realize that she must have been so uncomfortable, and it would have just prolonged her agony. Looking back at video taken the prior night showed how much worse she had gotten just after the x-ray. She may have fallen while alone and it would have been worse. Her passing may not have been peaceful.

I knew this would be extremely hard – I expected it to be and because I believed that, I always dreaded it. I never had a connection with any of my other dogs like I had with Bailey. She was my heart, my love, my friend, and she made me feel protected. She was always there. I know in time I will get used to her not being around, but I hate this newness – it is just so hard to go through. At the time I first wrote Bailey’s story, it had only been a couple of days since she’d been gone, and at the time of writing this post it’s been about 3 months. I still can’t help but cry because I miss my girl so much.

Those first few weeks we watched tons and tons of Bailey videos, and we noticed so many things she hadn’t been able to do in so long. Our girl had slowed down and this slow growing mass could have been growing for years for all we know.

Jax and Miso miss their big sister terribly. Jax was never an only dog, and he is desperately trying to find his way without Bailey. Miso was in love with Bailey. He had just started crawling into her dog bed to sleep with her about two months prior to her passing, so he too is trying to carry on without her. He seems so lonely at times, and it makes me so sad.

Where do I go from here?

At this time, I just wanted to add Bailey’s last story. I also want to continue sharing Bailey with the world — she is still very much a part of our lives. It gives me some comfort knowing that at least her story and photos will still breathe life on the Internet. It may be silly, but you can never predict how a death will make you feel or act. Until my next post, I hope you all hug your fur babies tight and enjoy every single moment of their lives… because they are way too short.

~ JM, DrawingMom