Soo.. I've been a lot less active here the last few months. My son's baseball season started and I coach 1B and outfield. Both of my dogs have also been going to the vet a lot also. One bloated up really bad, and the other has had constant eye infections. He's had a few other random issues in the last year that were unexplained. The bloated dog, I was told may have Cushing's disease, and that also just testing to be sure, would cost me thousands (which I don't have, because my wife been furloughed for the past year AND I put a lot of money into my house - so I could get it reassessed and get the value up , to drop the PMI and thus my house payment. Well last week, got it done and my house went up $75k in value, so now I've got a decent chunk of equity). My younger dog has apparently an auto immune thing going on, so she is on small doses of dog roids, which have helped immensely and she's also gaining weight finally. The older bloated boy dog... vet told me not to worry as of yet, as he seemed totally normal. (this was over a month ago). Anyway, about 2 weeks ago (Sunday morning), my boy was acting kind of weird, and so my wife put him on the bed to sleep with me, since he's been my ultimate sidekick since 2008. We slept forehead to forehead for a few hours (he's a big snuggler but got banned from the bed for peeing in his sleep a few months ago). Next day (Monday), he kept pacing around the house and would only lay down for an hour at a time, BUT would play with his ball and stuff. Tuesday, more of the same... panting, pacing, still trying to be interested in the ball. But then we saw blood... from a bubble looking thing by his butt. Called the vet, closed. So, scheduled visit on Wednesday afternoon. Took him to the vet, waited and waited. Went out to dinner... I feel like we knew it was not good because we just reminisced about when we got him etc. The vet called, and bleeding was from a tumor, she also felt other lumps around that area. Said she was 99% positive on the Cushings disease also, but that it was likely that he is riddled with cancer and his panting and pacing was because of his mega discomfort and that he would probably only last a few more days regardless. Also, "Even if you had $8,000 to find out all of these things, he is in such bad shape that he likely would not survive the anasthesia." Pretty crushed on the spot. So, she gave us pain meds to hopefully get him through 2 more days, so we could deal with it on Saturday. Went to work on Thursday... about 2 hours in, my wife told me he was bleeding all over the place and pacing and panting. So I went home and he looked horrible. Plus, he started doing this head tilt thing. His head would tilt left, then his right eye would blink a lot. Obviously something else going on - and not good. We made the call to get it over with that day. I told my wife I needed to take him on one last journey, as this guy has been my sidekick since 2008. Drove him around for a while, then took him to a park by a river to just let him do whatever he wanted. He perked up (head stopped tilting also) and had fun. Wishful thinking for me, I thought "maybe he is ok!" But we got home and same thing. My little man felt like shit for sure. Sat with him on my lap right up until we had to go. Took him in and did the deed that I hate. I've been a mess ever since (1 week now). Best friend I've ever had. They said they would give me a paw print of his and I'm getting his ashes also. I'll probably get the paw print tattooed on me, if not a portrait of him. Kinda prefer a portrait really. Not sure where I would do this yet - still too new of information for me to handle. I am also proud of my son, who was a disaster over this. He had a baseball game the same night our dog died, and I told him "Obviously we don't have to go if you don't want to", and he said he wanted to play, to keep busy to not think about this. First death he's dealt with and I think he handled it as pro as he could. He went 2 for 3 and knocked in 2 runs. You could tell he was hurting though. I feel like he did it for me, to keep me busy. To a degree.
Also, long story long, when I moved to NZ (where wife is from).. we went to just look at dogs, about 3 weeks in and I saw him. I was like "wow look at this little guy" but we left, as , at the time we weren't looking for a dog. About a month later, we WERE looking for a dog, and went back to that store, he was there. "That little guy is still here!" I said to my wife. He was curled up, looking depressed (to me). As soon as she handed him to me, he started licking my face wildly and I just handed them my credit card. They handed me his information and he was born on the day that I arrived in NZ, which I thought was cool. Rode on my lap all the way home. We had planned nothing about owning a dog, so that night I picked him up and stuffed him under the blanket by my right ribs. This is where he slept always until a month ago when he peed the bed. I named him "Reilly" after Terry O'Reilly, hockey player from the Bruins. He went with me everywhere and I mean everywhere. I've never felt the loyalty and love that he gave, from any human ever in my life. Never got mad at me, never bit me, ALWAYS happy to see me. Always fun and wanted to play, always. ALWAYS sat on my lap and snuggled every day of his life. When we moved back to America, I paid $4k to get him and my other dog back here with us. Poor doggies on a 14 hour flight and then a 3 day drive. At 4 years old, he suffered from intervertebral disc disease (more or less his spine busted and was leaking fluid, thus was going paralyzed). I whipped out the CC again and paid $5k to try the hopefully-successful-surgery. It was successful and I got almost another 9 years out of him. He would jump in the pool and chase every animal he could find. Loved walks and rides in the car. Everyone loved him, especially me. Feel 100% lost without him. Time seems like its moving slower and I feel incomplete. Would have been 13 next week - me and my son had planned to buy him party hats to celebrate becoming 13 but to no avail. I love animals more than people by far - drives my wife nuts because I can't see a dog without stopping to try to meet it. I try to feed birds on sight, I'll feed squirrels, groundhogs, raccoons, fish etc.
Love your pets - their time is WAY too short. Make it special. Animals rule.
RIP Reilly 7/2/08 - 6/17/21
P.S. my girl dog has been doing better health wise, but also seems lost without my man. She is the complete opposite of him - hates attention unless its a walk, and if you pet her more than she likes, she leaves the room, lol. Full of personality at least.
Topic: Pets dying sucks (Read 1200 times)