Been kind of down because our 7.5 month puppy died the first week of December. With my kids and grandkids so far away, I am ridiculously attached to my dogs and they are definitely family members. Been grieving.
When she was about 2.5 months old she got really sick and they almost hospitalized her. They did every test in the book on her and finally decided it was some sort of bacterial infection. She seemed to bounce back but developed an irregular heartbeat. More very expensive tests, cardiologist, blah, blah, blah. They said her heart was structurally perfect and speculated that the earlier infection had thickened an area of the heart causing the electrical impulses to be irregular. They thought she'd outgrow it and the cardiologist said it wasn't dangerous and wouldn't get worse and that she should have a normal lifespan. She never slowed down or showed the slightest symptoms. She was just a ray of sunshine.
The day the big ice storm blew in, she was racing in and out of the house to play in the snow. That evening, she raced in and threw herself down by my husband's chair. She did that all the time. Within about twenty seconds she cried out 3-4 times. We were right there but she was GONE. No bringing her back. It was horrifying. I had my stethoscope handy because I checked her, regularly, and it was like listening to a brick - no respiration, heart, not even any stomach sounds. We tried chest compressions and my husband even did mouth to mouth. Nothing.
The whole family was upset and one of our other dogs who just adored her was beside herself and has had a relapse of an auto immune problem. In contrast, our other dog (who seemed to like her) has been acting like she won the lottery, the little sociopath. I suppose she is glad she no longer has a puppy jumping on her head but she isn't even making the effort to look sad.
Rough Christmas. We sure miss the little darling.
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