I don't know if my poor puppy is going to make it to Christmas
 

Max the Wonder Corgi has lymphoma and is pretty-much at end-stage. He's happy and still running and playing prickleball, but he's getting lumpier and is starting to eat less and less... this morning I could tell he was in pain, so he got some Tramadol. The poor little guy didn't deserve this, he's pretty much a furry, noisy Buddhist with no legs.

He would stay up to the wee hours of the night studying A&P with me, then pharmacology...he's my best friend and now he's gotta move on.

I know I'll do what's right for him, without being selfish, because I want him to go out knowing how much I love him. It's really breaking me up.

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Before anyone asks, he's had chemo. Now he's on a palliative dose of prednisone and Lasix. I just went up to 20mg BID on the prednisone. He was showing lots of edema yesterday and complicating his breathing, so I gave him a handful of my Indapamide (Lozol) until I could get a 'script from the vet for the Lasix.

:(

Sorry to hear that. My family dog growing up as a kid died of cancer. I held him as the vet administered the lethal injection. It was tough.

sorry sir, Max looks like he is a great one...

The wife and I are so sorry. As you may or may not know, we lost the Sam Man this past Feb. and are still trying to get over it. I've always wanted a Corgi and will someday have one. Dogs are truly the best gift God gave to Man. God Bless and I'll notify the Sam Man to welcome him when he crosses the Rainbow Bridge.

Been there and done that 5 times now. It does not get easier but I have come to the point where I know what to expect and it is easier to deal with.

You have my heart felt condolences. It is never easy to loose a friend. Whether they have 4 legs or 2 make little difference.

Love. Nothing else matters. Strength to you during this time.

Awww ... he's such a cutie. So sorry to hear of his illness. It's never easy to let go of a friend, especially when you have to make a choice.:( My thoughts are with you.

Sorry for your loss. I'd plan for a cremation. I kept my old ones on my desk shelf at home. Not the same but they keep me company with good memories.

I lost my number one, Tuvok, about 6 or 8 weeks ago, tore my heart out.

http://www.knudsons.com/images/tuvokandfrizzee.jpg

He was 11, pretty old for a big pure breed.

He had been going downhill rather quickly this last year.
Getting around was getting more and more difficult, but he still tried to play right to the end.

We think he had a major stroke on Tuesday and pretty much stopped eating, very very unusual for him.

We stayed home on that Friday night and watched movies, had a fire (he always loved fires) and I stayed with him on the floor for the most part.

I put him to bed late that night, he had an old loveseat that was his bed, I had to help him up into it. He probably could have made it on his own but I helped him.

I gave him a big hug and kiss and told him if it was time to go, go.

When the other guy, Winston, woke us about 5:00 am Tuvie was gone, he hadn't really moved.
He went peacefully in his sleep.
May we all have such a peacefull end.

Sorry for the tear jerker.

The thing to remember is he had a wonderful life, the love he gave was enormous.
He lived hard and played hard.
He was treated with love and given everything anyone could want. OK he would have loved more food, but we had to keep him on something of a diet.

Remember the good times, the love, the fun and that you gave them a comfortable life. More comfortable than most children get, much less other dogs.
And the LOVE they return.

I've held two that we had to have put down. Those were two of the saddest days of my life.

We have a great, warm, compassionate vet that came to the house for the final goodbye. We were able to avoid carrying them to her office when they were so sick and the bright cold sterile environment of the clinic.

There's never a good time, but there's a right time. You will know it when it comes.

My thoughts are with you and Max.

I had a great dog Honey that died while I was on vacation. I'd go with putting him/her down before I allowed another dog to die while I was away.

"Gentlemen of the jury: The best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it the most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.
Gentleman of the jury: A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death."

Very touching - I had to look it up: it's from the famous speech by George Graham Vest;

... Stimpy - I'm sorry for the situation you're in... my thoughts and prayers are with you.

I look at it this way. It is the price we pay for the love of the dog. Cheap price, if you ask me. We get way more good times.

I'm real sorry. We had to put our bassett hound down last night due to the same thing. God I miss her. Our lab is looking every where for her.

So sorry ... it's so sad to watch your other pets looking for one who's missing, because you can't explain to them what happened. When I was young my sister and I had cats who were brother and sister ... the brother died young, and for years the other cat would go sit right on his grave. It was strange how she knew.

Sorry for your loss. This is such a sad thread.:( On the other hand, it is a gift to have something that brings such love to your life ... even if it brings grief in the end.

Our bassett was almost 10. She had chemo 2 years ago so we did get 2 extra years. She was one of those dogs that are larger than life.
Stimpy451 we had a tricolor corgi when I was in my late teens. They are amazing dogs and for being a small dog I would say they are tougher than dogs twice their size. Ours belonged to my parents and later I got a 110 pound german Sheppard but when they were together the corgi ran the show.

I am so sorry - we have three Corgi's, and they love to drive* in the either the 560 or the 380SL in the summer (they have no preference) with the tops down. One of them looks almost exactly like yours. They are 10, 9, and 2 years old.

I've gone through what you are going through too many times, and every time I get a new dog, I tell the puppy that I hope it outlives me so I don't have to go through the trauma again. This hasn't happened yet, but I still have dogs because they add so much to our lives.

*And I mean, drive - one stands on the armrest and captains, I just execute the manouvers - straight to the dog park.

Sorry to hear that, man. :( One of our neighbors is going through the same thing with her Shih Tzu. She's hoping he can make it through Christmas without any pain and suffering before doing the deed. If fact, she bought a new house a little further up the street but Gizmo really doesn't like it there so she's got an agreement with the buyer of her old house to let them stay there until the time comes.

Well, Max is still hanging in there. He reacted really well to the prednisone increase, he's up to 20mg BID for a total of 40mg a day which is very high. Other than the rapidly-progressing lumps, you can't tell there's anything wrong with him. I took him to Pet Supplies Plus and he got 4 new squeaky prickleballs (he LIVES to herd the prickleballs and squeek them for hours at a time).

Then I took him and his sister (White Dog, a lab) to the extended family Christmas party and he got SPOILED. We're talking huge pieces of ham, meatballs and chicken. We had a huge back room to play in so he could play prickle. White Dog decided to join in and play keep-away, but Max wore her out and she ended up on the couch with a blanket that night.

He's happy for now.

Max LOVES Umlaut. The front seat is big enough for him to stretch out, and he can see out the windows without having to jump up on the dash. He's got a thick undercoat, so the fact that I can have heat on my side and he can have cold air is a definite plus.

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Max, prickleball, shredded beach ball, White Dog

Stimpy, I know it's especially hard when a furry loved one has to start the journey to the Rainbow Bridge but rest assured he had the best dog life ever because he was in your care.

Man it's just not fair. I guess a short lifespan is what you endure in order to have a pure soul.

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Max was my wife's dog before I met her. He soon became my dog as we bonded. He's the kind of pup that you can look in his eyes and know what he's thinking.

When we met, he was grossly overweight and couldn't make it up the stairs half the time. I brought him home his first prickleball and he went ape**** over it, so we would do that and then he started running with me. He got into really good shape for an older Corgi...the pic above was last summer up at Higgins Lake. I didn't even know Corgis could swim, but he jumped in after watching us play and swam like crazy. Couldn't keep him out of the water.

Great memories up at the lake, camping. We'd walk up to the ice cream store and get puppy sundaes with dog treats in them and it seemed like the best thing in the world to them.

GUH I'm not handling this well

I like this, thanks.

I just remember how hilarious it was the first time I went wakeboarding with the dogs in the boat. Max would be up near the transom barking at me because he thought i was getting hurt.

Most of the time he was right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsDS_kpTAlQ

Maxwell the Wonder Cori

Great video. He looks like a Maxwell.

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Cooling off in a snowbank PSSSSHSHSHSHSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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This was the year he went as the Unknown Comic for Halloween.

I'm sorry you are having to go through this.

My black pug loves riding in the SD. If it is just me in the car she usually sits in the front with her hind legs on the seat and her fronts up on the dash. If the entire family is in their she is either on one of our laps or in the back window (except for the long trips in which she will fall asleep on her pillow- she takes trips very well). :o

I seem to do fine with the mechanics of it - he's taking an almost lethal dose of prednisone right now, and I think he's not reacting to it anymore, so it's about time to take him in. He's just going to be in pain from here on out.

What gets me is when I make myself busy with normal day-to-day things and I suddenly realize he's not going to be there in the future. I was working on my race bike last night - and between AHRMA races and Bonneville salt in the fall, I had really looked forward to him being there.

Who's going to protect me when the six-year-old gets rough? (he barks at her and actually bared his teeth one time when she was pretending to choke me)

you guys are probably sick of hearing about all this - it's just life. we made each other happy.

No one is forcing us to read this thread. It is after all Open Discussion where one can post about anything. This is your way of dealing with it and getting support from your Mercedes buds. The people continuing to read it loves dogs as much as you do. Write all you want. :o

No, we're not sick of hearing it. Most of us have experienced the same thing with the same raw emotions when we had to make the dreaded decision.

All life is finite. We are privileged to live with and love these peerless companions for an all too brief span,who ask nothing of you but love and care which they return a thousandfold.

I've had 14 dogs in my years here and I can say unequivocally my life is the better for it. I much prefer their company in the house and field to practically all people I know.
How many humans will always greet you with a wide smile and an eagerness to engage you...how many people will never criticise you and almost telepathically comfort you when you're depressed?

It never gets easier, no matter how many times it happens.

1000% Agree

Plenty of humans will. Just that you don't know whether they are sincere or not. Dogs, OTOH, are always sincere. I'd trust my dogs more than most people and if it came down to another person or my dog, the dog will win out most every time.

Never will but that is the price we pay for all the joy we get.

Agree also, but there are a few people in my life that have the same effect - my boxing coach is one. Every time I show up at the gym in a foul mood, he's on me, all smiles, cracking dopey jokes and slapping me in the head with a practice pad when I'm not paying attention. It could be that he's been hit so many times in the head.... but I digress.

Exactly ... all of us know, to some degree, what you're going through, so we know how painful it is and we know the importance of having someone to talk to about it. It isn't just something you do and move on from. And even after one gets over the initial grief, there are always moments down the road where you do something for the first time without your friend (a holiday, a summer trip, go to a particular park, etc.) and you realize again how much you miss him. But, along the same lines, his memory will always be there with you, too ... and I think over the long haul the good memories win out over the grief.

But don't ever worry about anyone getting tired of hearing about it ... we are all here because we care!

Max the Wonder Corgi passed on today at about 11:50 AM. He had an awesome Christmas - even playing prickleball and guarding the house up until the last hour. I know it was the right thing to do, but I miss him more than anything and it's horrible around the house because he was larger than life. His noises, how bossy he was when he wanted to play...I could go on and on.

What an awesome best friend he was.

I'm so sorry. But how special that he held on through Christmas for you, and you were able to make his last days fun and comfortable for him. I would write more but it will make me start crying at work. It sounds like you and Max were very lucky to have each other.

I'm Sorry he passed on :( In this time of Grief I pass on to you this: Though he may be physically gone, the memory of him will last a life time and nobody can ever take that away from you. he looked like an Awesome best friend to have around

I am very sorry and am holding a good thought for you.
I had to take my wifes dog to the vet to be put down several years back. I absolutely hated that poodle and still cried like a baby as she took her last breath in my arms. And I mean the real blubbery sobbing variety. :o:o
Hang in there....

Stimpy, my heart goes out to you.

As I noted I lost my number one, not too long ago.
I lost IT several times yesterday, one especially embarassing when my Brother gave me my Xmas present. A beautiful hand done drawing (by him) of my Tuvie.

It will hurt, it will pass.

And you will as we have done, get a replacement.

It was too early for me, but the better half kept pushing for it.

Barney is a puppy, Chow/Boxer, rescued from a shelter.
He's proving to be pretty smart and a very good little guy, but I know he'll never replace my Tuvie.

I'll post some pics later.

Take a deep breath, and remember the good times.

there's so much of him here, everywhere i look

i can't go to sleep because i think he's just outside waddling around

I's hard to think of the right words to say, hopefully the things around the house that remind him of you will remain to bring up the good memories.

Plus he gave you a Christmas gift of staying alive and playiong prickleball while you watched

He is just waddling around, in your heart, you gave him a good life.

Take a deep breath, remember the good times and get some sleep.

HE would have wanted you to.

You knew it was his time and you did the right thing for him.
Maybe not for you but for him.
Thats what you have to remember

You always gave him the best !

ps 2 months after mine, I am sitting here teary eyed.
But he had a life few could hope for, and I mean anyone not just dogs or animals.

I'm sure you gave Max the same care and love.
Thats what you have to remember .

Been there, done that. It hurts, plain and simple. It will hurt less intensely less often, eventually.

Big hugs from Darling Wife, me, and all ten of our critters (though you may want to wear the falconer gloves when getting Wiggle's hug - she's our PTSD kitty).

My condolences, it sucks losing a dog they are the best friends you can ask for.

Stimpy I'm so sorry. It's only been a week for us and I still go out to the couch every night to say good night to our little basset, she loved to sleep there. We have been through this so many times and I know some day it will get better but for now for both your family and mine it hurts.

Well maybe a little joy for this thread.

Here's Barney, our new addition, I won't say a replacement for Tuvie.

14 weeks, maybe 15 lbs, loves the snow and amazingly well behaved.

He's precious! Thanks for sharing ... puppy pics always make the day better.:)