A Sad Goodbye

Wow, I’m still in shock.  I just posted last week about my sweet dog Rocky acting funny and not knowing why.  Well, he started to act better on Thursday so we put off taking him to the vet on Friday.  He was walking better and even ate a little bit (which he hadn’t wanted to do in awhile).  

On Friday night we were relaxing and all of the sudden he threw up.  We thought, okay….weird.  So I told my husband we have to take him in on Saturday.  We called as soon as the vet opened and they didn’t have time to get him in until Monday.  We even called other vets in the area because we just didn’t know what to do.  Nobody could get him in and we didn’t want to start back at square one with a different vet.  He was okay on Saturday, just kind of lazy and having a hard time walking.  Saturday night he slept in the living room which is unusual.  He is usually in our room with us. 

When we got up on Sunday my husband tried to take him out before he went to work at the church and he wouldn’t go out.  So I said just leave him.  He left for church at 7:00 and Rocky didn’t do much all morning.  He got up once to get a drink of water and then layed back down where he was.  He tried to get up but his legs just wouldn’t let him.  So I sat on the floor and pet him and talked to him for awhile.  At about 10:30 he started breathing deep, long breaths and I thought, oh no please just be okay at least until Rob (my husband)  gets home.  Then he started whining and kind of grunting and I knew something wasn’t right because he never whines.  So I picked up the phone to call the emergency vet number and I couldn’t even get through the entire answering machine message before he was gone.  I was in shock.  I had to call the church and have my husband rush home.  He had to get ahold of the vet because we didn’t know what to do with him.  I have to say, I didn’t plan on seeing that happen.  I thought for sure we would have to decide to get him put down someday. 

We had no idea he was so bad.  He didn’t show pain, just discomfort and we actually thought maybe his front leg was dislocated.  Cleary it was a lot more than that.  How weird, sad and disturbing.  I have no idea what was wrong with him and I think I’m glad that I didn’t know.  As heartbreaking as it is to not have him around, I think it would have been even harder on me to know what he was suffering with.  Needless to say, yesterday was a horrible day for me.  It isn’t any easier today being home without my husband and without my dog.  It seems so quiet and still and I don’t like it.  He was so quirky and had such personality.  Here are a few of my favorite memories:

-Anytime I was in the kitchen making dinner he would stand right next to me and grunt quietly as if to say “hey, how about giving some of that to me.”

-When we would eat dinner he would stand at the table and sometimes even tried to put his nose on the table and we would say “nose off” and he would back up about an inch so his nose was just close, not touching.

-He licked everyone and everything….including the carpet.

-He LOVED car rides.  Say “car” and he was at the door.  We still have some nose prints on the back windows.  :(

-He loved people.  Didn’t matter who, he thought everyone loved him too. 

-He didn’t play fetch.  If we threw him a ball he would run after it and roll on it.

-He chewed on tennis balls.  Not just kept them in his mouth, he chewed.

-Every time someone was on the couch he had to lay between the couch and coffee table, which meant we had to always have our feet up on the coffee table.

This is just a short list of things that we will always remember about Rocky.  I never thought losing a dog would be so hard, but he was my companion during the day.  I took him out everyday.  We went to get the mail together and it’s going to be so hard to change our routine.  It’s hard to walk in the house and not have him there to greet us. 

A few nights ago I layed on the floor with him and got my last picture with him. 

    

Rest in peace, dear friend.  You will be missed forever.