He's been having issues with his liver for a while now and a couple months ago we thought we were going to lose him. He bounced back for one last go around and we're so thankful he was here when we brought Tucker home. Yesterday when I was getting him out of his kennel, I noticed as he was trying to just walk out of his kennel that he was having trouble. Once he got on his feet, he could hardly make it up the stairs and I had to take his front paws and put them on a step, then pick up his hind legs and put them up a step. When we got up the stairs, he just laid there. I didn't know what to do because I couldn't carry him, so I called a friend who came over to help. I couldn't get a hold of Jason as he was out at the farm. When Jason finally called me back, I told him what was going on and he called the vet, came home and picked up Andy, and went immediately to the office. About 45 minutes later they came home with the news that Andy's liver was failing and it was time. His gums were completely white as were the parts of his eye that should be red. He hardly had any circulation left, which is why he could hardly walk anymore. We knew what the right thing to do was, it just didn't make it any easier. Especially for Jason. He's been with Jason since he was a pup at Michigan Tech. They've been through everything together and he was Jason's best bud. We did a lot of crying last night and loving on him. Andy didn't move much as he was on a high dosage of pain pills, but Jason grilled him a nice pork chop and fed it to him. We took lots of pictures and just laid on the floor with him.
Jason got up every few hours or so throughout the night to check on him and give him more pain pills. Andy laid in the living room with Tucker and I in case anything happened. He didn't move a muscle all night. It was extremely tough to see him have hardly any muscle in his body anymore to move and just lay there.
We were both dreading this morning when we woke up. We had to wait until 8am to call the office to see what time we could come in. We made the appointment for 10:30am and had my parents come over to watch Tucker so that I could go with Jason. It was a long, short drive over to the office knowing what we were about to do and also just having to watch Andy so excited to go for one last car ride, not knowing what was to come. When we pulled in to the parking lot and got Andy out, his hips gave out again and he stumbled around trying to walk. They got us into the room right away and the vet came in to explain what she was going to do. She gave him a shot that put him to sleep and once he was completely asleep, she left to get the shot that would put him down. It took a few minutes before he was gone. It was terribly sad, but he went so peacefully. He didn't suffer at all. We had our last moments with him to say goodbye, which was so tough. It was so hard to leave his body there knowing that we won't see him again, knowing that we won't see him every day when we come home, or knowing that he was guarding our house every night. This has to be the hardest thing we've done so far and we miss him terribly. It's so quiet around the house and Sadie knows something isn't right. She won't come out of her kennel and I catch her every once in a while looking for him.
We know he's no longer suffering and that he's in a much better place. Dogs are family members and it's sad to see them go. The thing I miss most is his gentle eyes and his kisses. We made sure he gave us a few last night and he even gave Tucker one last kiss on his cheek. He was the best dog and although we knew this day would come, it didn't make it any easier. We have some great memories and many pictures to tell our boys about when they get older. We are having him cremated and we're going to spread his ashes out at the farm so he'll always be there with us.
We miss you like crazy, Andy boy. We won't ever forget you and love you so, so much.
Love,
Daddy, Mommy, Cooper, Tucker, and Sadie (Best Friends Forever)
No comments:
Post a Comment