Her name is Sister Bear Potato, and she is exactly what we needed

A few months after my daughter Austen passed away due to complications of Dravet syndrome, we acquired a new dog. My husband, Dakota, and I had begun talking about how both of our families have traditions of naming animals after loved ones who have passed on. His aunt and uncle have a bull and a dog named after his late cousin, and one of my dogs is named Jack, after my grandfather.

We thought we’d someday get another dog and name her Sister, since we always called Austen Sister Bear. We already have plenty of animals at home, so I thought this hypothetical dog would come into our lives years down the road. But one afternoon, we came across someone with a litter of puppies, and with one look at the runt, my heart melted. I told Dakota we had found our Sister. Her full name is Sister Bear Potato, and she was exactly what our family needed in our time of healing.

Recommended Reading

June 9, 2026 News by Steve Bryson, PhD

Patient-derived Dravet models may help study disease variability

The things that don’t go away

Raising a special needs child means living with what a friend of mine calls CTSD, or chronic traumatic stress syndrome. Our nervous systems never have a chance to calm down because there is always a crisis waiting around the corner. You constantly wait for the floor to fall out from under you. Between the seizures, doctor appointments, medication schedules, therapies, and more, we were constantly on the go, with barely a chance to slow down and breathe, much less let our nervous system regulate enough to rest.

The feeling doesn’t automatically go away when a child passes away. Even in your grief and anguish, you can still catch yourself thinking about them as if they were alive. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking you need to go check on them, or have a fleeting thought about renewing a prescription. But just as quickly as those thoughts come, so does the reality that they are no longer here. And then the grief merry-go-round starts all over again.

Sister was a distraction to that. Not only because a puppy needs constant care, but also because her sweet, calm nature became a peaceful presence around our home. Sister eased the grief process for our entire family, and provided us with cuddles when we were sad and laughs when we needed them.

A gift from Austen

This year, on what would have been Austen’s 11th birthday, we learned that Sister was going to have puppies! I spent the rest of May in a whirlwind getting ready for their arrival, and the puppies arrived on June 1. Because of their breed, they’ve needed almost around-the-clock care. This meant that during the two hardest months of the year for me — the month Austen was born and the month she died — I was often very distracted. The grief was always there, but with the puppies requiring so much care, my brain was dog-tired. No pun intended.

The puppies are now 6 weeks old and getting ready to go to their forever homes. There are six of them, and each one is showing its own individual personality bright and clear. If Austen were here, I know she would spend most of her time right outside their pen, watching them and waiting for permission to pick one up and hold it. She loved animals of all kinds, and they loved her, like they knew there was something different about her. She had such a calming effect on them.

Of course, the puppies didn’t take away all my grief. May and June will always be hard for me, I think. But the distraction was welcome, and so were all the kisses and cuddles. I like to think Austen sent them to us as a gift for her 11th birthday. Austen loved birthdays, and I think she wanted to make sure we were still smiling on hers.

Note: Dravet Syndrome News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Dravet Syndrome News or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Dravet syndrome.