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Saturday, October 19, 2013

What happened next: dog losses

It was the first week in December when our dog Megan started having problems. She couldn't walk, and her breathing was labored. She was at least 14 years old, a lab/pit bull mix who was an absolute snuggler. We rushed her to the vet.
X-rays were inconclusive, there may or may not have been a mass. The vet gave her a shot of steroids, a pain killer, and some sub-q fluids. We brought Megan home, expecting to put her to sleep in the next few hours.
But she rallied. That was all it took. Three days later she escaped and was running through the cornfields that adjoin our property, just like nothing had ever happened. We kind of knew she was on borrowed time, we were just hoping there was a lot of time left.
The week before Christmas, it happened again. The vet repeated the treatment, hoping for another miracle, but it wasn't to be. She got worse and worse until we couldn't watch any more, and had her put to sleep. It was heartbreaking. But because we'd had that other miracle, we'd had some time to baby her and give her extra love, so we didn't have as much of that "didn't even get a chance to say goodbye" feeling. It was still tough. We both still miss her a lot.
It was in February that virtually the same thing happened to our other dog, Buddy. He collapsed, we brought him to the vet. He seemed to be comfortable, so the vet urged me to go to work while they ran tests. Later that morning, the vet called to report that Buddy's liver and kidneys were both failing and there was nothing they could do. I made an appointment to have him put to sleep that afternoon, as soon as I could get there. While I was on the way, the vet called again to say that Buddy had passed. Another heartbreak.
We are now down to three dogs: Frosty (German Shepherd/pit bull, age 10), Molly (German Shepherd/collie, age 7) and Buffy (no, we didn't name her!) (purebred collie, age 5). It's bittersweet, of course, but it is nice to be able to fit me, DH and all the dogs in one vehicle :-)

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