Christmas Time

Sunday, November 11, 2007

a good dog...

ross and i bought two little daschunds before we got married almost 10 years ago. first came jake our black miniature and then came max. you can see in the picture that max is an unusual color. he was called something along the lines of a double dapple piebald miniature dacshund. let me just make a note here that there was nothing miniature about max. max's eyes were the coolest...in order to get this color dog i think there was a lot of inbreeding done because one eye was blue and one was brown. the eyelashes above the blue eye were all white and the eyelashes above the brown eye were brown.

yesterday max seemed lazier than normal. by the end of the day we couldn't get him to go outside. he had vomited early in the day and at dinner time i mentioned to ross that something looked strange about max's face. by 10pm last night we determined he was probably on his last day or so because he wouldn't even eat the treat we brought to him. he wouldn't drink any water either. we were about to leave him be on his pillow and go to bed so i sat on the floor next to him just to love on him a bit. when he tried to lift is head we noticed that there was some blood coming out of his mouth.

at that point we called our friend to come sit with the kids while we took him to the 24hr. vet. hospital. i wrapped him in a towel and we loaded into the car. i am so thankful i got to hold him for such a long time. he always loved being in our laps with a blanket.

after the dr. took a look at him she felt that he probably had kidney disease, liver disease, cancer or a combination of two or more of these. we made the sad decision to have max put to sleep. i love my dogs but i am also very aware that they are dogs. i never thought i would be so sad about his death. the tech shaved his little leg and got his catheter in and then i held him while the dr. administered the anesthesia. about half way through the medicine he looked up at me as if to say, "goodbye". i am thankful i could be with him in those last moments.

this morning we told henry and daphne. i was really dreading telling henry being that he didn't handle the death of his goldfish very well. today, he was so sad. he was sitting in ross' lap and he just looked at us and said, "but max was my friend." he has seemed to take it in a little better as the day goes on and daphne gets it as much as a 3 yr. old can.
jake wonders around looking for max...he hasn't whined about it yet. once when max spent a few days at the vet jake cried all the time.

thanks for letting me say goodbye to our good dog...

10 comments:

Sarah B. said...

How sad! I know that they are dogs, but they do become a big part of the family. I'm glad you had the opportunity to love on him and that you had a good ten years with him!
Sarah

Tonya Roberts said...

Oh Mandy,
I am so so sorry about your little buddy. I know that that was a hard thing to do...but so very kind. It's hard to know they are suffering so much. You did a kind thing and I hope I can be as brave when that day comes for our Casey.

laurie said...

Oh, how sad! Thankfully you and Ross could go take him in that night to care for him properly. I can't imagine how hard that must have been to tell the kiddos. What sweet pictures of Max with Henry!

Mary Jones said...

Mandy, I, as you say, know that the are dogs and we have always believed we would not let ours suffer or endure alot of prolonged medicine but they quickly become such members of our families. It is hard to say goodbye and yet it seems you were given a gift of a bit of time with him in the end. I like to think of the verses Matt 6:26 and Luke 12:24 when I look at our dog ... she was so thin when we got home and yet she has come back to us... I am so glad our God is so loving and loves our animals too.

Ross said...

You're going to have to update your "About Me" section. You're no longer at the end of your twenties!

I love you!

Byman said...

Mandy,

I am so sorry. Archie and Lady and the Byman family are saying prayers for Max today. Those are very sweet pictures of Mr. Max. On another note, happy late birthday!

Nic said...

oh no! that makes me so sad. what is jake going to so without max? I am a little teary eye'd and its going to be so sad going to your house and jake being all alone. i am just glad for max that he had parents like you and ross and sure that he enjoyed all the love you gave him. I would be happy to bring milo over is jake is feeling extra lonely :)

Elizabeth said...

Mandy, I am so sad for you and Henry.

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Aust Family said...

Hope everything is going well...it has been awhile without a blog. I am beginning to worry. Hope the beginning of your holiday season is keeping you too busy to blog!