Saying goodbye to a beloved dog

[MizzouRah]

Oh no way.. so sorry for your loss.

[Sweed]

CleBrownsfan so sorry to hear of your loss.

[DaddyTorgo]

Not this thread

Sorry for your loss man.

[BYU 14]

So sorry for your families loss. Feel so bad for you, especially your kids.

RIP Dante

[M GO BLUE!!!]

It's rough enough when we have to put them out of their misery, but when it's unexpected such as being hit by a car it's even rougher... sorry.

[Karlifornia]

Wow. So sorry. RIP Dante

[SackAttack]

Bad thread. Bad. No cookie.

Sorry for your loss, CleBrownsFan

[CraigSca]

Oh gosh, this is terrible. Prayers are with you and your family tonight.

[CleBrownsfan]

Thank you everyone for your well wishes. It was definitely an odd day without our Dante hanging around us today.

[molson]

Brutal. I'm glad you were able to give him so many great years though. It makes me think of Skydog's thread about not being promised tomorrow, it applies to our dogs too.

[General Mike]

So sorry CleBrownsFan. Terrible loss for your family.

[Castlerock]

So sorry. Just terrible news.

[Edward64]

Condolences. I know its tough losing a dog.

[BYU 14]

Though he was not our Dog, little Andre made national news, raised awareness for animal abuse worldwide and inspired so many with his courage and all he fought through over the last 10 months.

Sadly he has passed away over night and world is a little less bright for me right now. I met him at a fundraiser with his newly adopted human back in the spring and have followed his story on facebook and through the news from day 1, to the point where I almost felt like he was our surrogate Dog. His adopted human was amazing and gave him a great life over the last 7 months or so and I know she is devastated right now....Hell I can't stop crying either.

If you have Facebook stop by his page and read his story and leave some love for him. He was truly a remarkable Dog.

RIP Andre, you will be missed by all whose lives you touched!!!

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[MizzouRah]

Sorry for your loss.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Though he was not our Dog, little Andre made national news, raised awareness for animal abuse worldwide and inspired so many with his courage and all he fought through over the last 10 months.

Sadly he has passed away over night and world is a little less bright for me right now. I met him at a fundraiser with his newly adopted human back in the spring and have followed his story on facebook and through the news from day 1, to the point where I almost felt like he was our surrogate Dog. His adopted human was amazing and gave him a great life over the last 7 months or so and I know she is devastated right now....Hell I can't stop crying either.

If you have Facebook stop by his page and read his story and leave some love for him. He was truly a remarkable Dog.

RIP Andre, you will be missed by all whose lives you touched!!!

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This one is really sad and I am tearing up as I type. In your original post I found the picture of Andre both inspirational, that a dog so mistreated would have the ability to still have love for a human owner, and sickening that someone of my species could do such a thing.

Knowing he lived a loving life after being rescued is comforting. I would like to think he's in a better place chasing a ball in a bright sunshine filled field.

Please express to Andres' adoptive owner and facebook followers that there are many of us that don't do the social media things but are still thinking of Andre today.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Sweed

This one is really sad and I am tearing up as I type. In your original post I found the picture of Andre both inspirational, that a dog so mistreated would have the ability to still have love for a human owner, and sickening that someone of my species could do such a thing.

Knowing he lived a loving life after being rescued is comforting. I would like to think he's in a better place chasing a ball in a bright sunshine filled field.

Please express to Andres' adoptive owner and facebook followers that there are many of us that don't do the social media things but are still thinking of Andre today.

Thank you Sweed, I will pass your thoughts along. I am still jacked up over this. I will always remember how trusting and loving to all that went to meet him at his fundraiser. It is like he had forgiven whoever had abused him and was just happy to be petted, held and showered with attention. After all the surgeries and everything else, I was really sure he was going to make it and live for many years.

It is just heartbreaking reading the update from his owner today. Talking about his things still scattered around their place and she just keeps waiting for him to bump into her leg. I feel so bad for her, see loved him so much. I know because of Andre I have gotten a lot more involved in helping Animal abuse organizations and will continue to do so in his memory.

The amazing Andre

[BYU 14]

Wanted to share one last thing on Andre. His seeing Eye human, Sandy, put this awesome video together detailing his life from rescue to his way too early passing from complications of Diabetes. It is very touching.

[Sweed]

Thanks for sharing that BYU 14. It was great to see what a great home he ended up in and how good\happy he looked in some of those pictures. God bless Sandy. I am off now to give my dog a huge hug.

[Wolfpack]

For those seeing this thread bumped, I apologize in advance for bringing and sharing my sadness.

Having said that, being the reserved type that I am, I've always preferred cats to dogs. I never had one growing up (dad was always afraid they'd ruin the furniture or the carpet--he's right, they do), but when I graduated from college, my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I decided we'd get two cats together. We opted for pure-bred cats over strays and wound up with a Maine Coon and a Bengal. The Maine Coon, Josh, has always been a somewhat reserved, but very lovable ball of fluff, sort of like myself, while the Bengal, Max, was more high-strung, emotional, and loud, sort of like my wife (not that my wife is loud as such, but she is much more talkative than me). They've been our children before we had children, but they're now grandparents in cat parlance at 14 years old. As our children have grown up, they also have come to love those two cats.

Sadly, however, it looks very much like we are going to lose Max in the very near future. He'd always been a high-energy cat, but he definitely had begun to slow down in recent months. In the past couple of months, he actually started to get a bit thin. We thought maybe he wasn't eating his food as well as he used to, so we tried switching to smaller, easier-to-eat kibble and he seemed to come back a bit, but in the past two weeks, he has drastically worsened. We were away all Thanksgiving week and on Friday, we got a call from my wife's friend, who was caretaking for the cats while we were away. She said that Max looked really skinny, wasn't really eating his food at all and she hadn't found more than a cat's worth of waste in the litter boxes. We were concerned, but I said it was likely because Max, being the picky eater that he is, was probably not interested in what probably was stale food. Nonetheless, we came home as planned on Saturday with my wife and I both hoping that nothing bad really did happen. We actually couldn't find him for a few minutes after getting home, but he did turn up eventually. Unfortunately, the caretaker was right. He wasn't doing very well. He seemed to be walking more stiffly in his hind legs and he had a lot of trouble eating the fresh kibble I gave him, usually dropping it out of his mouth after trying to crunch on it. He was even skinnier than he was when we left for the trip.

Thinking (and perhaps wishfully at that) that his old teeth were making it difficult to eat hard food, we tried to switch him over to moist food this past week and while he did eat some, he wasn't close to eating a full amount for a normal cat. Though his eating gave some hope that he'd perhaps recover some, I started thinking it was unlikely Max was going to survive to see his 15th birthday next summer.

As the week went on, however, those hopes faded as he continued to lose interest in the soft food as well, until today when he pretty much didn't eat anything at all. He's been drinking water, but that's pretty much all he's ingested. His hind legs really seem to have seized up on him as he has basically (when he's moved at all) been hobbling around from place to place.

At this point, we probably will take him to a vet tomorrow. Given his age and what seems to be the advanced state of his decline in health, unless there is a simple solution, we will be facing the difficult choice of putting him to sleep. We've already begun grieving over it. This is going to be hard.

[MizzouRah]

So sorry Wolfpack.

[BYU 14]

Man, I hate seeing this thread bumped. so sorry Wolfpack. You have given Max a wonderful life and I hope that provides some solace through this difficult time.

I feel for you and your family.

[Sweed]

Sorry to hear this wolfpack.

[claphamsa]

that sucks, the senior feline around here is pushing 15... and i woe the day he stops eatting

[Wolfpack]

The vet visit went about as expected. There was some initial hope that perhaps it was just a UTI, but further testing confirmed that he's in advanced kidney failure, which has been ongoing for some time and the UTI merely has accelerated the decline in the last couple of weeks. He's been given a dose of fluids and we've been given treatment for the UTI in the hopes that it will at least improve his quality of life, but it's a terminal issue overall at this point. We'll know by mid-week whether the treatment will be able to do anything for him. If not, we'll have to put him to sleep to spare him further pain and discomfort. Unfortunately initial signs aren't promising as he's still refusing to eat anything.

He's in my lap now as I type, not a place I normally let him be, but we've all been very tolerant and kind towards him as we see the handwriting on the wall and want to do what we can to help him be comfortable in what time he has left.

[Castlerock]

So sorry, Wolfpack.

[HeavyReign]

I'm surprised the vet didn't send you home with fluids to give the cat subcutaneously. Three years ago I took my older cat to the vet with similar issues at age 17. She wasn't eating much, was thin, and pretty much spent all her time laying next to the plug in heater we had. They gave her IV fluids at the vet and did blood work. They had me use the fluid set twice a day and when she was rechecked a week later her numbers were much better. She's still alive today. She goes through spells where she doesn't feel well but overall she's a very happy cat. Someone else I know had a cat with this issue as well and their vet told them that it wasn't treatable. Here is a website I found when doing research about this if you want more information:

http://www.felinecrf.org

[BYU 14]

So sorry Wolfpack, was hoping for better news from the vet

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by HeavyReign

I'm surprised the vet didn't send you home with fluids to give the cat subcutaneously. Three years ago I took my older cat to the vet with similar issues at age 17. She wasn't eating much, was thin, and pretty much spent all her time laying next to the plug in heater we had. They gave her IV fluids at the vet and did blood work. They had me use the fluid set twice a day and when she was rechecked a week later her numbers were much better. She's still alive today. She goes through spells where she doesn't feel well but overall she's a very happy cat. Someone else I know had a cat with this issue as well and their vet told them that it wasn't treatable. Here is a website I found when doing research about this if you want more information:

http://www.felinecrf.org

We've seen that site. Thanks for suggesting it, though.

Unfortunately, Max is too far gone at this point. He's not really responded to the attempts at feeding or treating him. He's almost unable to walk now, and the times he's awake, he seems to be in a lot of discomfort. The inability to walk has led to a couple of accidents today because he couldn't get to a litter box. As hard as it is to do, we've finally decided to take him in to be put to sleep tomorrow. I'm facing a long night ahead in trying to help him be as comfortable as possible until then.

Thank you all for your kind words. I knew it'd be a hard day when one of our cats died, but it's still a bit surprising to find out just how hard it's been to say good-bye. (Dammit, I can't even finish this pot without tearing up. )

[CleBrownsfan]

So sorry Wolfpack... I lost my pet companion a few months ago and there has not a day I have not thought of him. Time does heal and now we reminisce almost daily of something Dante use to do to make us smile.

[McLovin]

Sorry to hear Wolfpack. It's so hard. Read "The Last Battle" poem that Castlerock posted on page 2 of this thread. I read it often.

[Sun Tzu]

These stories just rip my heart out. I'm sorry for your loss, Wolfpack. I'm sure kitty appreciates your love over the years. Thank you for sharing.

[HeavyReign]

Sorry Wolfpack, I was really hoping that there was still something you could do. One thing I've read is that cats have a way of letting you know when it is time. Unfortunately it does sound like Max has reached that point. One of my biggest fears is how I'll handle the day when my cat reaches that stage. It was rough last summer when my younger cat passed on. For me the biggest relief was in knowing that I gave my cat a great life in the time that we shared.

[Wolfpack]

July 31, 1998-December 4, 2012

Rest in peace, Max.

Thanks again, everyone for listening in and offering your thoughts, prayers, and best wishes. We know things are better now for him.

[BYU 14]

Just heartwrenching, I just know you are torn up, hang in there buddy.

RIP Max

[Honolulu_Blue]

Sorry to hear that. It sucks.

[claphamsa]

RIP

[DaddyTorgo]

RIP

[MizzouRah]

My dad and mom's shih-tzu was put to sleep this morning at 5 AM. They have a veterinarian that lives just a couple of houses down and they took her yesterday because she had blood in her stool.

The vet finally got her to eat and her stool looked normal, so after some tests he said they could pick her up last night.

This morning she was having a seizure, so after the seizure ran its course and they had her calm, they called the vet and got in the car. On the way to the vet she had a really bad seizure and my dad (as he was crying) told me she was in great pain.

The vet gave her 3 doses of volume, but she wouldn't come out of it. From there, they decided to put her down.

Very sad how something goes bad so quickly...

Kiss your animals today and tell them you love them!

[CleBrownsfan]

Sorry Mizzou

[MizzouRah]

Thanks

[CrimsonFox]

Very sorry Wolfpack and Mizzou! Hugs to Max and the shizou.

[BYU 14]

So sorry Mizzou

[Sweed]

Sorry to hear MR.

[MizzouRah]

Thanks again everyone, I hugged all my dogs and our two cats today.

[Lathum]

sorry to hear...

[samifan24]

My girlfriend's family had to put down their six year old Golden Retriever, Duke, today from inoperable stomach cancer. I am heartbroken. I loved that dog like it was my own. He was always happy to go for walks in the neighborhood or beg for scraps when his mom and dad weren't looking. He began throwing up his food about a week ago and the vet thought he had a problem with acid reflux so they gave him some medicine. He continued to throw up so my girlfriend's mom took him back to the vet yesterday and that's when they found the cancer, way far back in the back of his stomach in an advanced stage and very difficult to remove. We said our goodbyes last night but we'll all be reeling from this shock for a long time. RIP, Duke.

[BYU 14]

So sorry Samifan, so sad that it was so far advanced when the symptoms manifested.

Sending postive thoughts your way.

RIP Duke

[MizzouRah]

Sorry for your loss samifan

[Honolulu_Blue]

That really sucks, samifan. Far too young.