Going Against Intuition

When is the time to say good bye to our four legged friend?

That is a difficult question that many people ask me. Many times they call me and ask me, "Is he ready?"

You know when the time is there, you can feel it. But sometimes other people interfere with their eyes and logic instead of their gut feelings and that interference disconnects the intuition. Animals know. They prepare themselves and leave the pack so they are not a burden any more. That is still unconditional love from them into the end.

Some people are watching with their eyes, "He is not in pain, he is not howling."

Animals go into a state of mind were they start to close the world off. They have to be strong right up to the last minute. They can not "scream," they are protecting their pack from attracting enemies, and to scream would signal weakness and vulnerability.

When mourning you start to go through, if and whys. Questioning and re-questioning decisions you made, or didn't make, that maybe contributed to the end result. It eats at your mind and your heart, everything is aching. You wish, you hope, you want to wake up from a bad dream.

Saturday, Max's baptism was a wonderful day. We had our four dogs on the back side of our house. No one would go into the back yard and bother them. The Barbecue started and at some time, someone threw in a rib to the dogs. Ranger, our Black Labrador ate one. A person who no doubt thought that "he" did something nice, instead started a chain of events with a deathly outcome. also believe a plastic cup blew in where the dogs were, and Ranger smelled something wonderful and took a bite that would later lodge in his throat, and yet later when he vomited, he would aspirate into his lungs, eventually sawing his lungs up and causing internal bleeding.

Later we heard him coughing, clearly something was stuck in his throat. People said, "If he is not good 'till Monday I will show you were the ER veterinarian is"

Later, too much later, I said "He wont make it through the night, he is getting worse, something is cutting him."

People said, " No he probably scratched his throat."

Later, was too late!

When he threw up with blood, after everyone else had left, it was finally crystal clear that he was in dire circumstances. Todd called to get the friend out of bed to show us where the 24-hour clinic was (note, always know this when moving to a new location), and he sped Ranger there.

Emergency surgery took care of the rib in his throat, and took out some other stuff from his stomach: plastic, a balloon, whole olives. But the physical damage to his lungs was apparently too much. He continued unconscious under anesthesia for about 7 hours, but when he should have been transitioning out of the anesthesia, he went into respiratory distress, followed by failure. The vet clinic says they tried several things to revive him, and actually had him for about 30 seconds, but they lost him in the end.

Try to always go on your gut feeling. When it comes to your friend, your connection with him is stronger than stranger's eyes.

Our Big Amore Goof! We Are so sorry we didn't listen to our heart. We are so sad without you!