Goodbye Max

Today we had to say goodbye to Max.

There was an accident when I was in DC. He was accidentally run over by one of the family cars a couple nights ago. Dad and Shauna nursed him as best they could all that night and the next day. They waited for me to get home before taking him to the vet, because I think they knew already that'd we'd have to let go and that I'd want to say goodbye.

I stayed with him last night and we kept him as comfortable as we could. But he couldn't move his back legs, and occasionally he would cry out in pain.

By morning, I understood too that he needed a release from his pain and suffering. Since Dad was working, Shauna and I took him to the vet. I was still hoping maybe there would be a way to save him.

The vet told us Max's pelvis was fractured badly. It would require a very extensive surgery to reconstruct it, one that would take weeks of recovery, and there was no guarantee that he could ever use his legs again. At his age, it would be very rough on him. Or, we could let him go. He gave us some time to call our parents and make the decision.

So we called, and together as a family we decided to let him go. It was a hard decision, but I think it was kinder than him enduring the pain of such an extensive surgery. I was praying desperately for guidance, and when we made the decision, I felt a deep reassuring peace that we were making the right choice.

The vet was working two critical cases at the same time (one of them being Max) so he was gone a lot and we had time to pet Max and tell him we loved him for a long time, maybe as long as a half an hour. At first, he was frightened and moaning and trying desperately to drag himself off the table with his front legs. He doesn't like the vet's. I think he was scared to be there again, remembering past surgeries he'd had to endure, and having his humans sobbing (despite our best efforts!) just panicked him more. But soon he calmed down. He settled onto the exam table, wrapped in a blanket, and started to drift off to sleep, long before the doctor came to administer the sedative. First, the vet sedated him. Then he came back with the final injection. He warned us it would be quick, less than a minute. I was shocked that it was almost instantaneous.

But I felt peace, even in the sadness, and I know Max is better off where he is now. No more pain. He can walk again--for the past few months, even before the accident, that's been a struggle for him.

I'll miss him a lot. He was 15 and a half. I've had him for over half my life. I'm grateful that I moved back home when I did, so I could spend his last months pampering him and showing him how much I loved him. And I'm grateful that he didn't slip away last month--that we had the gift of one last month with him before he went.

Stubborn Old Dog

Last week was a blizzard, today was 61 degrees and sunny. I love the spazziness of Colorado weather!

I decided to take advantage of the warmth to take Max on a walk (yes, in his stroller!). He was content to stay in there for most of the walk. But when we turned onto our street, he got so excited to get out that he almost jumped out of the dang thing.

And then this happened:



I guess it's safe to say this little guy has made a full recovery! Makes me happy to see him so spunky.

PS: Youtube offered to stabilize the video because it was shaky... so I said yes, and that's why the stroller warps weird in the corner there. :)

All Better?

Good news--Max is doing SO much better today, thank goodness! I really thought he was a goner yesterday. In the morning, he was so weak he could barely lift his head. He wouldn't eat. He couldn't walk.

But Shauna had the smart idea to rip his breakfast up into tiny little pieces, and hand feed him. He was able to get that down, just barely. All day he lay in a heap in bed next to me. We'd bring him water and food every once in a while.

By dinner, he actually sat up to eat out of his bowl, and he was able to eat it all without help. A little after that, we carried him outside to do his business, and he actually started walking around. When we brought him back inside, he went straight back to bed. We dragged a mattress upstairs so I could sleep by him and keep an eye on things. A couple times in the night, he actually got up and walked to the door to ask to go outside.

Today, he seems pretty close to normal, if a little bit sluggish. He's been walking around the house again. He is able to walk to his water dish when he's thirsty or his food dish if he's hungry.

I don't know what was going on yesterday. It really scared me. But he is doing so much better today, I'm really hopeful he's going to make a full recovery and stick around for a while longer!!

Saying Goodbye

I think my dog might be dying today.

He's very old--15, and his breed usually lives to only 13. His health has been deteriorating a bit the last little while... His left back leg doesn't work right anymore, and sometimes he falls over. But this still caught me off guard.

This morning, we just couldn't get him out of bed. I gave him his favorite wet dog food, and he licked it a couple times, took a couple tiny bites, and then ignored it. He can't walk at all today. He's just lying in a heap and breathing very shallowly.

I looked up these symptoms online and of course it took me to an article about how to know when your dog is dying. It looks like the only thing a vet could do would be to put him to sleep.

All I can do is stay close by him and pet him and tell him how much we love him. I wish so much that I could do more. And I'm still hoping that somehow, he'll snap out of it, and go back to the way he was yesterday. But I don't think that's going to happen this time.

This is a weird blog post, I know, but writing it out is helping me somehow. Right now it's just me and Max. Shauna and Mom will be back here soon but for now it's just me keeping watch.

Dog Stroller

So today, I became the semi-embarrassed owner of a dog stroller.

I know, I know. If you're like me, you've seen dog strollers in the store or out on the sidewalk somewhere, and you've been a little weirded out. Aren't strollers for babies? Isn't the whole point of walking your dog to, like, let it walk?

But my poor sweet little puppy is now a very elderly 15. He still wants to go on walks, but his body just isn't up for it anymore. It seriously took him half an hour just to walk to the end of the street the other day. For some reason, he's perky at home, but walks wear him out fast.

So... I caved. A dog stroller seemed like the perfect solution. It took me forever to find one that was cheap. It came in the mail today--fortunately in a camouflaged box so the mailman wouldn't think I was crazy.

Yeah.... I'm pretty sure my mailman thinks I'm crazy...

Shauna and I may have gotten a little bit too excited about it.  I took a break from work to help assemble it. As soon as we had it up, we woke Max up (um... not a great idea, in hindsight) and off we went!

I think we both had visions of Max being thrilled that he could go on a walk again. That's... not quite how it went down. At first he was looking around with an incredibly confused expression. What is this thing and what are we doing? But he stayed put, until I said, "I think he must like it, otherwise he would be trying to jump out." Yeah, he totally understood that because he immediately started trying to jump out.

So, we stopped, and let him out to stretch his legs. Immediately the little guy took off at a dead run. Our little dog... the one that took half an hour to walk down our street... running as fast as he could go. I took this as, "I don't need a stroller!!! I have four legs!" Eventually, though, he tired himself out, so we stuck him back into the stroller... until he got his strength back and we let him out again. It seemed like a pretty good system. He'd run, get tired, we'd stick him back in the stroller...

So, the jury is out on whether or not he likes it. I think it will grow on him. :) It better!

Bunny Dog

Mom got a great idea. It's hard to send letters to Jason through the mail, but we can always use the missionary pouch system (letters sent to Salt Lake and carried to missions with the latest batch of missionaries). She discovered we are allowed to send postcards through the pouch system, so she's been working on custom postcards from Walgreens to send to him.

Here's a little preview of what he has to look forward to (his Easter postcard):

Nobody can make a puppyface like a puppy

How could anyone say no to this sweet little face?

Just a little earthquake

Last night, around midnight, I should probably have been asleep. Instead I was playing with my dog. We were hanging out in my bedroom. I left to go get something, leaving the door open just wide enough for him to fit through.

(This is my dog. Isn't he cute? <3)
Well, apparently he tried to get out, and somehow accidentally closed the door. I could hear him scratching to get out. I called to him that I'd be there in a minute. Usually, if he hears that, he'll calm down because he knows you've heard him and you'll be coming back. But instead he just scratched harder, over and over again. He was desperate to get out of that room! I finally made it back to let him out, and he headed upstairs.

I didn't think anything of that until I heard him barking hysterically in our front room. Right away my mind turned to my parents and siblings, all of whom were trying to sleep upstairs. Usually Max (my dog) knows better than to bark at night and wake people up. I was a little bit upset with him for being so loud. I should have paid more attention, I guess. He was doing his "trouble" bark, like something was wrong.

I went to find him and ran into my mom, coming to do the same thing. She was concerned because she recognized his worried bark and wondered if something was wrong. But he calmed down pretty quick. He noticed my mom left her door open and tried to hide in her bedroom, but we managed to coax him back downstairs.

My mom and I were standing in the kitchen talking when we heard a strange rattling noise. It sounded exactly like the sound Max makes when he shakes his head and his ears slam together. But I was looking right at him when we heard it and he wasn't moving. This took us back a little. We wondered if maybe there was another animal outside and that's why Max had freaked out? Then we heard a strange creaking noise behind us-much like the noise made when someone walks through our family room. But we could see in the family room and no one was there. This was starting to get a little bit creepy. We heard another burst of creaking that seemed to extend farther through the house, but when it faded it was replaced with the sound of footsteps upstairs. We relaxed and I figured we'd just been hearing someone moving around upstairs. We both went off to bed.

My dad came down a couple minutes later to explain why Max had freaked out: we'd just gone through a mini earthquake. My dad had been in bed, listening to my mom and my conversation downstairs, when all of a sudden the bed started shaking. It didn't shake very hard, and he says it lasted about half a second, but he felt it when we were hearing the strange creaks in our house. My dad figured the quake was so minor it wouldn't even register on the Richter scale, but he did a google search anyways to see what he could turn up. Sure enough, around the time he felt the tremor, a 5.5 earthquake happened a couple hundred miles from here. He thinks that we felt the very edge of that. He also thinks Max freaked out to warn us because he could sense it coming, with that awesome sixth sense that animals seem to have.

Anyway, that's my little earthquake story! Glad it was only a little one. I'm an even bigger fan of dogs today now that I know they really can warn us of danger.