We had my wonderful dog, Lady, put to sleep today. She was 16 years old, and we were about 3 months shy of our 16th anniversary of adopting her. The day we went looking for a dog she saw us and immediately started wagging her tail. The next day she was due to be euthanized. She really was the most wonderful dog, ever.
She was smart and cunning, protective, and just so loveable. She was also greedy and extremely jealous of all other animals. The squirrels and the birds made fun of her, and while she was fast, she could never catch them, and they'd just taunt her some more.
We called her "Houdini Hound" because she could escape any kennel we put her in, even if it was padlocked. We never figured out just how she did it.
She was a very destructive dog for most of her life. She had severe anxiety problems, and was never completely housebroken. We always felt that this was because of the abuse she suffered before we adopted her from the Humane Society at about 5 months of age. She also had epilepsy, which we did control with drugs.
When she was 13 she moved to Florida with my Dad, although she was my sister's and my dog. See, she was always happier with him, and we wanted her to be happy. She did pretty well there until about the beginning of this year. We think she may have had a stroke, and that was the beginning of her health's downfall. In the last few months she had become more incontinent than she had been, she was probably mostly blind, may have been deaf (I'm still not sure on this one; she liked to ignore us a lot). Her mind started going, and it seemed like she was unsure of what she wanted and would spend hours getting up walking around and panting every night. Recently, she had started to have trouble walking.
We decided that while she still had a good and loving home, her quality of life just wasn't very good, and there was no way we could really make it better. I don't live in Florida, so I didn't get to see her one last time, but I know she knows I love her. My Dad was with her at the end so she wasn't alone.
Lady, I miss you, and I will love you forever. All we ever wanted was for you to be happy and know you were safe and loved.
Love,
Tricia
She was smart and cunning, protective, and just so loveable. She was also greedy and extremely jealous of all other animals. The squirrels and the birds made fun of her, and while she was fast, she could never catch them, and they'd just taunt her some more.
We called her "Houdini Hound" because she could escape any kennel we put her in, even if it was padlocked. We never figured out just how she did it.
She was a very destructive dog for most of her life. She had severe anxiety problems, and was never completely housebroken. We always felt that this was because of the abuse she suffered before we adopted her from the Humane Society at about 5 months of age. She also had epilepsy, which we did control with drugs.
When she was 13 she moved to Florida with my Dad, although she was my sister's and my dog. See, she was always happier with him, and we wanted her to be happy. She did pretty well there until about the beginning of this year. We think she may have had a stroke, and that was the beginning of her health's downfall. In the last few months she had become more incontinent than she had been, she was probably mostly blind, may have been deaf (I'm still not sure on this one; she liked to ignore us a lot). Her mind started going, and it seemed like she was unsure of what she wanted and would spend hours getting up walking around and panting every night. Recently, she had started to have trouble walking.
We decided that while she still had a good and loving home, her quality of life just wasn't very good, and there was no way we could really make it better. I don't live in Florida, so I didn't get to see her one last time, but I know she knows I love her. My Dad was with her at the end so she wasn't alone.
Lady, I miss you, and I will love you forever. All we ever wanted was for you to be happy and know you were safe and loved.
Love,
Tricia
