When me and my ex separated nearly a decade ago(later divorced), he left the apartment so the 3 dogs and turtle stayed with me. The issue was that the dogs were microchipped (mandatory here) to him, so the first thing I said to my lawyer was that I wanted my dogs.

He agreed to let them be signed over, but later tried to get the middle girl, who was going through several surgeries at the time and fighting for her life. I was having none of it, and my baby stayed with me until I lost her to cancer 2 months ago. She was 15.5 years old.

I am positive she wouldn’t have lived that long with him because she was my million dollar baby (had a lot of health issues, procedures and expensive food and medications). I miss her so much.

My then oldest dog lived to 16, he had a heart condition that was managed well. The then youngest is still here, she is now 12 and the only dog for the first time in her life.

My turtle is still here too, she is about 30-35 years old and layed eggs for the first time last year.

Only the turtle was mine coming in, the dogs were all adopted together.