We had a single dog for 7 years.
She was shutting down, refusing to eat and losing weight. Then we got a second dog and she bloomed as a dog.
I will never have a single dog again. But then, hey, I'm about to have a bunch of dogs..
Dogs of MUD! (1 Viewer)
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She was shutting down, refusing to eat and losing weight. Then we got a second dog and she bloomed as a dog.
I will never have a single dog again. But then, hey, I'm about to have a bunch of dogs..
We discovered that the dog we were trying to adopt at the shelter has some meds to finish up for 3 more days so she was not adoptable yet. It was one motherless ride to north Jersey and we knew the ride back was going to be even more miserable. We were somewhat insistent we try to find a dog we could bring home that day and Stella was it…the other black lab we originally looked at with the medications turned out to be Stella’s sister.
Stella has an amazing personality and we knew it after the first 5 days or so. I checked the web site after that time frame and saw that sis was in foster care. When I called them to say we wanted to bring her home as well, she had been adopted. Sure we’re disappointed but happy that she also found a home to enjoy and be loved.
In the meantime, Stella and Ruby are doing wonderfully together. Possibly it was just meant to be. This dog is a love bug. And, 3 weeks later she has not stopped wagging her tail. When I feed her in the morning, her entire body is wiggling…I can only interpret that as …she’s really happy. Makes my wife and I just melt!
Stella has an amazing personality and we knew it after the first 5 days or so. I checked the web site after that time frame and saw that sis was in foster care. When I called them to say we wanted to bring her home as well, she had been adopted. Sure we’re disappointed but happy that she also found a home to enjoy and be loved.
In the meantime, Stella and Ruby are doing wonderfully together. Possibly it was just meant to be. This dog is a love bug. And, 3 weeks later she has not stopped wagging her tail. When I feed her in the morning, her entire body is wiggling…I can only interpret that as …she’s really happy. Makes my wife and I just melt!
Hopefully this post will come across in the spirit in which it was intended. Looking back, we made a poor decision when it came to the quantity of life vs quality of life issue. Our dog had been suffering for several months and we refused to accept the fact. He was eating less and less, wanted to sleep most of the day and had issues getting up and down. I’m not advocating that anyone make a rash decision when it comes to putting a pet down but on the flip side, don’t let them suffer. We did and I deeply regret that.
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nor_cal_cyclist
GOLD Star
When we lost one of our Goldens at home unexpectedly, our other one showed obvious stress followed by separation anxiety. I made the decision to bring another pup into the home, against our Vet's recommendations. Took 2 days and they were best friends....and all stress and other issues went away.
Sorry for the loss of your family member
Thanks …. We have 2 other rescue shelter dogs that I’m hoping recover from the recent drama quickly.When we lost one of our Goldens at home unexpectedly, our other one showed obvious stress followed by separation anxiety. I made the decision to bring another pup into the home, against our Vet's recommendations. Took 2 days and they were best friends....and all stress and other issues went away.
Sorry for the loss of your family member
Thank you for the great post!
It’s a mistake that’s easy to make out of love for pets and many make the mistake including my wife and I with our beloved Queensland
Our dogs relie on us to know when to do the right thing, for us it’s never easy.
It’s a very tough call to make. I don’t know if we can ever be sure that we timed our decision optimally. I hope that folks who can honestly say that they operated with good intentions can find peace of mind. We are fallible. I believe that we do the best we can at each point in time.
I am so sorry for your loss. And I understand where you're coming from as to the timing of the decision.There is more to having to put a dog down than just the loss of a pet, (yes, family member) as I’m discovering. We had our local vet come to the house yesterday and put down our 13 year old Walker Hound who could no longer stand.
As bad as that was, how it has affected our other dogs (rescue shelter dogs) is possibly more sad. Their behavior has changed dramatically since yesterday. They are extremely nervous and avoid the area where the hound had previously laid. I can only hope it’s temporary.
When we had to have our first Lab put down (also at our house) our vet, when he saw him, said, "Oh my." I took that to mean that maybe we had waited too long. I don't believe that he suffered unduly, but in his last weeks his quality of life was definitely poor.
Our third Lab was an excruciating decision. He was only 9 years old, but his debilitating condition made the decision necessary. The fact that his brain -- his wanting to do what he couldn't any longer -- was still so "young" made it the toughest call to make. During the time leading up to it I spoke with several veterinarians, at least two of whom I consider good friends, asking their advice and they all told me that first that it's MY decision, and that second I would know when it was time. Sometimes it just takes a little longer for us to be sure that it's time.
All of that is to say cut yourself some slack here. You're beating yourself up because you loved him and it's one of the hardest decisions -- for some of us it may be the hardest decision that we ever have to make. You loved him, you took care of him, and when the time came you did right by him. That is what counts. My heart goes out to you.
I now understand that dogs are “more aware” than we give them credit for. Our dog was put down on one end of our family room where he laid on a blanket. Our other 2 dogs will not walk through that area and will go out of their way to avoid it. Their overall behavior seems to be slowly recovering however.
Loss is such a difficult emotion and feeling… our English Shepard Bella was 11yrs old…a routine vet visit had this outcome. He came back to thre rooms and said “ bad news man. You have to decide when you’re going to put her down she has. xxxxxxxx . It was 4 or 5 long worded illnesses and I took her home… within 5 days she had passed. That visual lives in my head so poorly. She was human as most us know. Understood so much and the day before she passed, she walked out to a far corner of our woods and starred out in trees. Maybe 2 hours, like she was in deep deep thought.
She usually did not head out to that area but she looked peaceful and quiet. Two days after she passed, our golden went out to that same spot and starred,out into the woods for an hour….like it was a portal to the after-life
Ok, maybe too many movies but… I have lived here 47 years with many different dogs, never saw that.
R.I.P. Bella
She usually did not head out to that area but she looked peaceful and quiet. Two days after she passed, our golden went out to that same spot and starred,out into the woods for an hour….like it was a portal to the after-life
Ok, maybe too many movies but… I have lived here 47 years with many different dogs, never saw that.
R.I.P. Bella
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I’ll play along! This is Griffin our 5yr old French Bulldog. The only thing he loves more than skateboarding is riding in the FJ40’s.
rhah
Admit it, your cruisers jealous
Decided it was time for a pupper dog road trip
So we loaded Taco and Opal up and headed west to meat Junebug and Bear for some adventures
Got to say this was a solid spot to break down and spend camp for a couple days
So we loaded Taco and Opal up and headed west to meat Junebug and Bear for some adventures
Got to say this was a solid spot to break down and spend camp for a couple days
