Candy received her first “award” this week. Clear Creek Animal Hospital presented it to her for bravery during her dental procedure.
When Dr. Lindsey examed her a few weeks ago, she verified that Candy definitely needed her teeth cleaned and probably needed some extractions. Candy went in on Wednesday. I knew she’d be nervous if I put her in the car and took her right to the vet. (It didn’t go so well when I tried to take her to a groomer a while back.) Instead, I took her for her regular walk at the Nature Center, and then we went to the vet. She was calm when we got there but shaking by the time the technician took her from me.
They called me later and said that Candy needed at least eight teeth extracted. Some were mobile and one was cracked. I was surprised and asked how she would be able to eat. They told me that dogs have more than 40 teeth, so she’d be all right.
When I went to pick her up, she looked a little confused. She mainly lay in her bed the rest of the day. The next morning, I thought I probably shouldn’t take her for a walk, but when it came close to the time when we usually leave, she was looking around like she was expecting something. I decided to take her, and if she looked like the walk was a struggle, I’d end the walk.
She didn’t miss a beat. One of the things people say the most when they see Candy is that she “prances.” Someone said that yesterday morning, so the dental procedure didn’t slow her down.
I thought it would be difficult to give her the medicine she needed to take for her dental work, plus the Denamarin she is now taking, but we’ve succeeded.
She’ll be eating only soft foods for the next two weeks. After that, I’m hoping she’ll be less of a finicky eater. I know she’s always been picky about her food, but maybe some of that recently was because of her teeth issues.
Happened to catch Candy wandering down one of the paths in our backyard recently and thought I should probably post a picture since I haven’t done it for so long!
I guess we have adjusted slightly to having only Candy in the house, now that Flower, Dottie, and Nigel are gone. I still dream regularly of Flower, Dottie, and Nigel. Usually, I don’t dream about all of them, but I recently dreamed that all four of them were with us in the living room, and we were on the floor playing with them. In my dreams, I always “know” that they really aren’t supposed to be there. This time, in the dream, I commented to John that they’d been there the entire afternoon. Obviously, if they had been there with us that long it had to be real and not a dream!
I miss them so much that I have thought about at least fostering another dog … or two … if not making the leap of adopting again. I regularly look at the dogs that come up on Adopt-A-Pet and Petfinder. I contacted National Mill Dog Rescue to see if they needed foster parents, but they weren’t looking for anyone in the Denver area. I filled out a long application at Evergreen Animal Protection League, because Deb at Clear Creek Animal Hospital used to work with them, but they didn’t contact me. Then, on Sunday afternoon, I saw a shih tzu named “Pete” on Adopt-A-Pet. I read that he was being cared for by Brighter Days Dog Rescue in Boulder. He was a cute grey shih tzu that someone had found wandering the streets of New Mexico. I showed John his picture and wistfully said he’d be adopted soon. John told me I could ask about him. I didn’t really know if I would although I wanted to. I waited until the next day and looked up the post about him again. The adoption fee was close to $700! I couldn’t believe it. I think we adopted Flower, Candy, and Nigel for $250 each. I will always fondly remember that Delores from BFF Rescue threw in Dottie for free because she was afraid no one would adopt her, since she was 5 years old.
How I wish Delores was still alive and still running her rescue! For now, we’ll just keep enjoying our time with the one dog we have left! And, I’ll probably try to contact Evergreen again and maybe even Brighter Days. I think Candy would like having another dog around too.
Today was a heartbreaking day. Nigel hasn’t been in the best of health lately. He had pneumonia in late February. It took him a while to get back to normal. However, he was soon stealing Candy’s food again, begging for treats, and looking forward to our regular car rides together.
Yesterday morning, he didn’t want to eat and started shaking, like he does when he gets sick. I called the vet and set an appointment for this morning at 11. He seemed to be going downhill rapidly. Sadly, he passed away as I was getting ready to leave for his appointment.
There’s more to the story, and I will share it someday. For now, though, Nigel, we love you and will miss you. Candy will miss you too. You enriched our lives since we met you on Sept. 29, 2011, and brought you home to foster. We were “foster failures,” since we couldn’t give you up after knowing you and had to adopt you.
Not a good way to start Colorado’s stay at home order. I had to take Dottie to the vet and put her to sleep this morning. I hope you’re running with Flower, Dottie, like you did when you were younger.
Dottie was 14 and a half years old. She was born on Sept. 17, 2005. We brought her home in June 2011.
When we decided to adopt a dog, and we went to Best Friends Forever, we were looking at half-sisters Candy and Flower, who were 2, and decided to adopt both of them. Delores, the shelter owner, convinced us to take their half-sister, Dottie, too. At 5, she was elderly and Delores thought she would be difficult to find a home for, so she said she’d throw her in for free. We joked over the years that she really wasn’t free. But because of that, we nicknamed her Extra.
A couple of years ago, Dottie developed some medical issues. She had constant problems with her ears and then, with her eyes. We were told last year that she had a tumor on her adrenaline gland and that it would be tricky to remove it. Basically, two years ago, we started saying she was in “hospice care.”
Dottie got frailer and frailer as the months went by, but each morning when we came downstairs, she’d get up out of her bed and follow me around, and each night when John got home from work, once he was resting on the couch, she’d go and rub her head against his legs as he petted her. On most mornings, she would follow me into the kitchen to see what goodies she would get as I made John lunch.
I won’t say that Dottie was always pleasant. In the past couple of years, she developed a habit where she would suddenly get possessive or jealous, and want to “eat Nigel’s head.” Sometimes when she was sitting by me on the couch, and Nigel walked up the doggie stairs, she would growl at him so fiercely that he would flee in terror. I would have to say, though, that her bark was worse than her bite.
All in all, she was our precious little Extra, and even when she was a terror, we would soon forgive her.
We don’t quite know what happened in the last week. Over the weekend, she started hunching up her back and when I would come near her, she would look way up at me, in a way that wasn’t normal. I thought maybe her eyesight was failing further and she couldn’t see me very well. Other than that, she seemed fine, although her normal frail self.
However, this morning, she woke me up very early, crying. When I came downstairs, I realized she couldn’t get out of her bed. She was trying to, but her back legs wouldn’t move. I picked her up and sat her next to me on the couch. For a while, she seemed comfortable, and then she would start crying again.
By the time John got up, I knew that I would have to take her to the vet. I didn’t know what to expect, with the new stay at home law and new rules at our vet office, Clear Creek Animal Hospital.
As soon as the office opened, I called and spoke to Debbie, the lead receptionist. I was crying, but I finally got out that I felt like I might need to put Dottie to sleep. She told me that when I got there, I should call and tell them I was there. They would make sure no one was in the lobby before ushering us in.
I had John tell Dottie goodbye, and I put her in the car. I kept her on my lap during the 20-minute drive. When I got to Clear Creek, I called them and Laurie, the other receptionist waved me in.
Debbie took me into an office. As we talked, I held Dottie, who was still hunched up from whatever was wrong with her. After we had talked bout Dottie for a while, she informed me that both of her shih tzus had recently died. I was shocked. Debbie had recently told me that one of her shih tzus had a tumor, and they were doing what they could for it. Then, a few weeks ago, her other shih tzu got sick, and within weeks, they both died. Debbie and I sat in the office, several feet apart, me crying and her trying not to. I knew we both wanted to comfort each other, but fear of coronavirus kept us from hugging, so we sympathized with each other from across the room.
When Dr. Lindsey came in, I explained to her how Dottie had been acting. She told me that Dottie’s condition could be caused by several things. The tumor on her adrenaline gland could have grown bigger, or maybe she had suffered an injury, causing something neurological. She said we could try steroids, but she didn’t know about the results.
Because of Dottie’s continued and multiple issues, I asked if she thought I should put her to sleep. She hesitated and then said, “It’s not the wrong decision.”
I knew what she meant. She didn’t want to tell me it was the “right” decision, but she wanted to assure me it wasn’t wrong to do it. I said that was my decision. She asked if I wanted to be with Dottie when they gave her the injection. She also said that while they were putting in the catheter, if Dottie struggled (and she was known to struggle!), she would give her a sedative.
She left the room with Dottie and when she came back, Dottie was gently sleeping, no longer hunched up and in pain. Dr. Lindsey asked if I wanted to be alone with Dottie, but instead, I chose to reminisce with her, since she had been Dottie’s vet for nine years. I told her funny stories and we talked about Delores and when we first got Dottie, Candy, and Flower.
Then, she told me Dottie was gone. Thank you, Dr. Lindsey, and Clear Creek staff, for guiding me through this difficult process, euthanasia, that I had never gone through before.
We have so many memories of Extra that I hope to share someday soon. Our little baby, Extra, we loved you so much, and we will miss you and those bright little eyes.
