Opinions Please

[sengeoz]

Dear Karen,

Please be gentle with yourself as you travel across the weekend with Joey. You know in your heart of hearts that it is time for Joey to set forth on a different sort of adventure that you can not follow at this time.

BUT, you and Joey have shared a love that few of us are allowed to share. Joey has loved his life and has love his human/s and been adored and loved in return. What a precious gift. And it is because of that love you share that you are able to give him the ultimate gift of a release from pain and suffering even at the peril of your own heart.

Take those pictures, clip his fur, cry your tears, laugh, hug your boy and pour your heart out to him.

And above all, remember love never dies.

I will be thinking of you both now and in the future.

Bless you
Judith-Ann

[Chowmia]

Bless all of you who have poured out your feelings and shared them with me. For those of you who have relived the pain of losing a beloved pet in the past to share with me your advice and heartfelt feelings of compassion, I thank you.
I am a very faithful person and try to put all that I do and am about to do to prayer. Through all of these months with Joey I never really understood the whats or the whys. I just accepted the time I had and was grateful. With this latest ACL rupture I felt so saddened that my time with him would be up. But all along I kept my faith that I would know, one way or the other, when I was to be the one to decide his time was up. (so to speak). This morning when I saw him for the first time I saw in him this determination, a determination that clearly let me know HE would let me know when that time would be. His held his head up high and the expression I saw in his eyes was strength. His tail wagged so hard his butt was wiggling! I have not seen this in him for near 2 weeks...Oh the love this boy has so far outweighs what any textbook or dr. says. What common sense tells us what should be, isn't. He started to use his leg today for the first time in 2 weeks. He is putting just a little bit of weight on it when for the past 2 weeks he has not been using it at all. I am still keeping him restricted (his sister and brother love to play) and will continue to do so. And so, maybe I will have only a short time more with him. But that is a short time more than what I had yesterday. But I will give him something he has asked me for this morning in his expression, a little more time and a lot more faith.

[CoraP.]

I'm awfully glad you'll have some more time with Joey. You never know...

[Juniper]

I'm awfully glad you'll have some more time with Joey. You never know...

How true CoraP!

Since I got Troy at 9 months as a rescue...with his host of problems, severe arthritic healed over fractured left hind leg, limping problems on his right hind leg, excessive allergies, itching, severe pancreatitis attack this year...Sooooooo many times I thought I should put him out of his misery with all the whimpering and pain he's been in. Then as soon as I think it's time...he comes around! Obstinate little chow ...so here we are and he is now...Oh my gosh I think he's now 4 years old...and I keep thinking he's 3! He still limps, I rub his legs whenever he gets up and comes to me. He has good days, bad days. But he's not ready to leave yet...but I do always keep myself ready for the inevitable.

Just love 'em while you have your time with 'em and enjoy every moment...especially the moments that catch you off guard.

Take care,
Jennifer

[Chowmia]

Thank you for that, Jennifer.
Karen

[wallacethegreat]

Karen,
I posted a couple of days ago, but please take this one in the spirit with which it is given.
In January, Wally crashed on Sunday. We had to help him get up off the floor. It was so sudden and unexpected. I took him to the vet (an emergency call...don't our critters always schedule thieir illnesses on the days when vets are closed?) and she did x-rays, etc. He was so sick. At 13-1/2, I kept thinking he had more time, but this particular Sunday was really ugly. The x-ray showed he had a large tumor on his spleen and the cause of his sudden crash was that the tumor was bleeding. She suggested that Wally have an ultrasound, but when I checked it out, I was told he'd have his stomach shaved and his legs be tethered to ropes from the ceiling to hold him upside down while they did the ultrasound.
I looked at my Chow boy and realized that he had too much dignity to be treated that way and frankly, the x-rays already showed he had a large tumor on the spleen. The vet said it could rupture and he'd bleed to death at any time. She said he had perhaps up to three of four weeks to live. I asked myself, and Wally, why would we put him through the horrible ultrasound procedure, especially since the vet said it was most likely cancer (he'd had cancer surgery in August 2007) and he would not survive any surgery, because of his age, and that the tumor was very large and most likely inoperable anyway.
That was on a Sunday, January 20th this year.
I thought long and hard about what to do. My husband I had him on all kinds of drugs around the clock for that week, setting our alarms to make sure Wally got his meds 24 hours a day. Then, by Friday, he rallied.
After hearing about the ultrasound procedure and what it would do to him, I, sobbing, had already called the vet the previous Wednesday and scheduled his euthanasia for that following Saturday, January 26th. The fact is, he was not going to get well. He was not going to recover. He was never going to be healed. I used that few days with him to the fullest.
It was BECAUSE I loved him so much that I knew it would be much worse to watch him painfully bleed to death because I couldn't face the decision that needed to be made. He knew, and I knew, it was time.
I scheduled the vet to come to the house at 11 a.m. on January 26th put my old Wally to sleep.
I woke up early that morning, took many, many photographs and got out my old video camera and shot lots of video. He had rallied to the point that I began second-guessing myself about whether I should have him put to sleep or not. He acted like himself!
He played with his other buds, he even ran after the ball several times, as though nothing was wrong. In fact, when I came inside for just a couple of minutes and then went back out to find him, I noticed that he'd run all the way down the road! Just to explore his neighborhood one more time. It was the most adorable thing and SO like Wally to do such a thing. It actually was hilarious.
About an hour later, the vet arrived and we all went into the bedroom (he always slept on his bed right next to me on the floor.)
I haven't told anyone this before in my posts, but when the vet gave him "the shot", nothing happened. He acted as though we were having a party in the bedroom. He wouldn't go down. She sent her vet tech out to her truck to get more medication. A second shot. Still, he wouldn't go down. She said she'd given him as much as it would have taken to put a horse down, but Wally, always interested in what was going on, wouldn't go down. A third shot, and we literally, and I mean literally, had to pull his legs out from under him to get him to lie down. It was horrible, but I knew in my heart of hearts that had I let him continue to suffer and die because I couldn't gut up and find the courage to do the right thing, I never could have forgiven myself. The vet calls him the Chow who wouldn't die. She said his heart was still so strong and just kept beating! It took nearly 15 minutes before he finally gave up.
Did I put him to sleep too soon? Maybe. By a couple of weeks or so. But I know that I loved him so much, I NEVER would have made him suffer for just a couple more weeks on this earth to be with me because that's what I wanted. That would have been the most selfish thing I could have done.
My point is, that while Joey seems to have "rallied" this morning, wagging his tail...you already know what to do and what MUST be done.
I'm with AuddyMay on this one. Please don't think that Joey's good mood means he'll recover. He won't. He knows that, and you know that.
I have been thinking about you and Joey for the past few days and about you saying you had planned to send him to the Rainbow Bridge on Monday.
I hope for Joey's sake that you will still have the courage to do that.
Again, my heart and prayers are with both of you. I think Joey's "rallying" is just to show you that it's OK.
Please know that it's never easy. In fact, it's one of the worst and most painful things we have to do as anyone who loves a pet, whether it's dog, cat, horse or bird.
I will pray for your courage and for Joey's relief. Hang in there. We're all with you on this.

[pfordeb]

I think most of the people on this site have faced this at one time or another. I did, myself, for the first time this summer. Just know we are all with you on this. You and Joey will make the decision together. That's what everyone told me and it turned out to be true. He will let you know what he wants to do and when. I am so sorry you are dealing with a sick puppy, no matter what. It is very stressful for everyone.

[jacqui]

I agree that they do rally.no matter how ill that they are they some how get the strengh to do the funny or silly things that we love about them.
just 2 years ago my 10 year old boy Tiko was diagnosed with Bone Cancer that had spread to his lungs.he never let on he was ill until it was too late.
after x-rays confirming my worst fear the vet gave Tiko 7 days to live.they sent us home with pain shots and pain medication.
the next day I knew that Tiko would not last another day.he was crying and pacing and couldn't lay down.I was up all night rubbing his back and sitting on the floor with him.I gave him pain shots every hour.the shots were suppose to last 12 hours.finally at 5 AM I knew in my heart that this was it.
I got Tiko outside and he insisted on walking around the block.so we walked around the block and we were almost home when Tiko saw his arch enemy the Greyhound just for a moment Tiko was his old self again,kicking and barking and carrying on like there wasn't anything wrong with him.
that was Tikos rally and I will never forget that.that is how I will always remember my Tiko for the happy, funny guy that he was.
Karen,I think you will know when its time.you will do the right thing for Joey because you love him so much.