I've had to do some difficult things in my life, but the toughest thing I may have ever done in my life to this point occurred last Wednesday, March 7, at approximately 8:25 am. I had to put my good canine friend and almost nine year rommate Bear to sleep.
My sister got my friend as a six week pup, had him for about a year before moving and having to give him up, but despite her best efforts at finding him a good home, nothing ever really worked out for him. My mom wound up with him for a number of months, but he was quite a handful in his younger years, a little too much for her at least. I took him off her hands when I moved to Ohio in 1998 when he was about three, and he was my constant companion from that point.
He had gotten ill Monday morning, a most unusual event for him, so I took him to the vet that afternoon, and the doc decided to keep him overnight for X-rays and some lab tests, and possibly an ultrasound the next day. The good doctor discovered a large, inoperable tumor with the ultrasound, and it was causing life-threatening internal bleeding. The doc informed me of Bear's condition Tuesday afternoon. I went to visit him that evening for over an hour & they kept him stable overnight while I slept on the decision that I was pretty much forced to make by his steadily deteriorating condition.
He was really struggling early Wednesdsay morning when I returned. His breathing was labored and he was unsteady on his feet, but really glad to see Dad again. We spent some time together again and then I had the vet come in and give him the shots that took him away from me until we meet again in the next world. It will be a long time before I recover, if one can ever recover from tragedy like this; while he was getting pretty long in the tooth for his kind, he'd always been a very healthy guy, so losing him this suddenly was quite a shock. He would have been thirteen in May.
3 comments:
I'm sorry to hear about Bear. Another blogger, LawDog had to put his friend Moira down recently, too. As the "father" of two spoiled beagles, I can only imagine how hard this has to be. Sympathies from all at The Shack.
Oh...I'm sorry. We had to give up a dog last year. We had not had her quite that long (three years) but she attacked and almost killed another dog. She was such a pushover, we couldn't believe it. The owners of the other dog said they thought it looked more like she thought he was prey (she was a malamute, he was a teeny poodle). But you never know, and we had to give her up.
Thanks to all for the kind words.
Post a Comment