We lost Scout today {cocker spaniel}

[DallasCowpoke]

RIP you wonderful boy.
I love you Scout.

Condolences for your loss. I'm sure he loved you threefold.

 

[jobberone]

So sorry to hear this. My condolences.

 

[CowboyStar88]

I am so sorry for your loss.. Losing a fur child isn't easy especially the attachment we get. The short time we get with them. I love this poem I don't know the author but I will post it anyways. RIP little guy....

Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

This thread just kills me. I can't imagine many things more painful than losing your dog.

Our German Shepherd, Blitz, died over a year ago and it still hurts sometimes. It gets easier with time like with most everything else, but it just tears your guts out when it happens. In our case, it was just so unexpected. We went to see a movie and left him at home with our other dog, Roland. When we got home, he didn't greet us at the door and when I opened the backdoor to let him and Roland outside, he finally stirred and walked slowly to the backyard. He was noticeably lethargic. Plus, when he finally stirred, I could hear that he had been in the bathtub.

For Blitz, the bathtub originally started out as a place he would sleep at night. As time went on, he slept in there less and less, but would get in the bathtub when he was afraid. So, in my mind, I think he felt something go wrong, got scared, and climbed in the tub.

Anyway, as he comes in from the backyard, I start checking him over because something is obviously wrong. I notice that his gums are extremely pale. My wife and I looked at each other and instantly decided to take him to the emergency vet. Another aside to the story: this trip to the emergency vet was his first and only trip in a new car we bought specifically large enough to fit both him and Roland comfortably in the backseat. I remember opening the sunroof, something he had never seen, and him being excited for just a moment before the energy just drained from him and he laid down.

We get to the vet and they see him very quickly as soon as I let them know the symptoms. We wait 20 agonizing minutes and we're told to move to a room so we could meet privately with the vet. This sets off some more alarm bells in my head. She gets into the room and tells us he has cancer. I can't for the life of me remember what exactly it's called, but it's a cancer that gets into the blood vessels. Apparently, he had some some vessels rupture around his heart and the area around it was filling with fluid preventing it from beating fully.

We ask what the prognosis is and it's not good. They end up draining the fluid from his heart so that he'll be alright to meet with a specialist the next day to give us any possible options. So, they drain his heart and we get to go in the back to see him. He's in a cage with his chest shaved. He's slightly drugged still, but you can tell he's pretty scared and not feeling well. We comfort him for a while and leave him there to be watched until the specialist gets there in a few hours. A couple of hours after we leave, we're still laying in bed wide awake crying off and on, so my wife calls and checks up on him. They say that he's feeling better and had just been outside bumping car handles with his nose wanting to go for a ride. That makes us feel good enough to at least sleep a little. That was at 2 AM.

It's 4 AM and the phone rings. It's the vet. His heart has filled with fluid and they're asking for permission to drain it again. Of course. Do whatever you need to do. We hang up the phone and about 5 minutes after that, it becomes extremely apparent to me that if his heart has filled with fluid again in just over 2 hours, this isn't a battle we can win. I call the vet and tell him that we're going to be heading in and that we're going to put him to sleep. He agrees that this is the best course of action at this point.

We get there and they put us in a room so we can see him one last time. They bring him in and he's fresh off another fluid drain so he's obviously out of it. We've brought his favorite toy which was a deflated basketball. He doesn't really pay any attention to it, but at least he's not hurting. We lay on the floor with him and tell him how we came to find him, all the fun things he's gotten to do in this life, and how much we love him. He's looking right at me as they do the injection and within a couple of seconds, he's gone.

That post was entirely too long, but once I got started I figured I'd just go ahead and tell the story. I'm sure others have similar ones.

 

[CowboyStar88]

This thread just kills me. I can't imagine many things more painful than losing your dog.

Our German Shepherd, Blitz, died over a year ago and it still hurts sometimes. It gets easier with time like with most everything else, but it just tears your guts out when it happens. In our case, it was just so unexpected. We went to see a movie and left him at home with our other dog, Roland. When we got home, he didn't greet us at the door and when I opened the backdoor to let him and Roland outside, he finally stirred and walked slowly to the backyard. He was noticeably lethargic. Plus, when he finally stirred, I could hear that he had been in the bathtub.

For Blitz, the bathtub originally started out as a place he would sleep at night. As time went on, he slept in there less and less, but would get in the bathtub when he was afraid. So, in my mind, I think he felt something go wrong, got scared, and climbed in the tub.

Anyway, as he comes in from the backyard, I start checking him over because something is obviously wrong. I notice that his gums are extremely pale. My wife and I looked at each other and instantly decided to take him to the emergency vet. Another aside to the story: this trip to the emergency vet was his first and only trip in a new car we bought specifically large enough to fit both him and Roland comfortably in the backseat. I remember opening the sunroof, something he had never seen, and him being excited for just a moment before the energy just drained from him and he laid down.

We get to the vet and they see him very quickly as soon as I let them know the symptoms. We wait 20 agonizing minutes and we're told to move to a room so we could meet privately with the vet. This sets off some more alarm bells in my head. She gets into the room and tells us he has cancer. I can't for the life of me remember what exactly it's called, but it's a cancer that gets into the blood vessels. Apparently, he had some some vessels rupture around his heart and the area around it was filling with fluid preventing it from beating fully.

We ask what the prognosis is and it's not good. They end up draining the fluid from his heart so that he'll be alright to meet with a specialist the next day to give us any possible options. So, they drain his heart and we get to go in the back to see him. He's in a cage with his chest shaved. He's slightly drugged still, but you can tell he's pretty scared and not feeling well. We comfort him for a while and leave him there to be watched until the specialist gets there in a few hours. A couple of hours after we leave, we're still laying in bed wide awake crying off and on, so my wife calls and checks up on him. They say that he's feeling better and had just been outside bumping car handles with his nose wanting to go for a ride. That makes us feel good enough to at least sleep a little. That was at 2 AM.

It's 4 AM and the phone rings. It's the vet. His heart has filled with fluid and they're asking for permission to drain it again. Of course. Do whatever you need to do. We hang up the phone and about 5 minutes after that, it becomes extremely apparent to me that if his heart has filled with fluid again in just over 2 hours, this isn't a battle we can win. I call the vet and tell him that we're going to be heading in and that we're going to put him to sleep. He agrees that this is the best course of action at this point.

We get there and they put us in a room so we can see him one last time. They bring him in and he's fresh off another fluid drain so he's obviously out of it. We've brought his favorite toy which was a deflated basketball. He doesn't really pay any attention to it, but at least he's not hurting. We lay on the floor with him and tell him how we came to find him, all the fun things he's gotten to do in this life, and how much we love him. He's looking right at me as they do the injection and within a couple of seconds, he's gone.

That post was entirely too long, but once I got started I figured I'd just go ahead and tell the story. I'm sure others have similar ones.

Thank you for making this 34 year old man cry like a baby while reading this. I'm going to be facing a very big struggle soon. As my Huskey Skylar is going to be 14 and she has really slowed down the past 5 mons her hearing is almost gone and her sight is limited. She has a hard time at night when she needs to go potty as she can't find the dog door. She has been with me since she was 6 weeks old. All I asked her is that she tell me when she's ready. I will be crushed when I lose her.