o feel for you and your sick pet. If you've ever read any of my online journal, (this entry in particular - http://www15.brinkster.com/wishstar/july02/laacie.html) you will know that I too had a sick pet once. I unfortunately lost her the very first year I was here. But if you think it's hard to have a sick pet now, imagine getting the call in the middle of the night from your sister in absolute hysterics because she's had to rush your beloved pet to the vet and is now having to decide if she should be put to sleep because she's so sick. Imagine having to hang up the phone and know that your baby is 3000 miles away, dying in someone else's arms and you're never going to be able to say goodbye. And then imagine having to wake up the next morning in a very strange place where *everything* in your life is upside down and unfamiliar. Just imagine how hard that was.
I think you really got to the heart of the matter. You said exactly what I fear. You see I am in a dorm at the University of Minnesota--my pepe (the poodle) lives with my family in Milwaukee. Pardon the part about being in a foreign country I am going through almost the same experience.
We believe he may be terminally ill. Some sort of stomach infection has over taken him in the last year and a half. What used to be a 35 pound dog has turned into an 18 pound one. We have visted numerous vets and done numerous tests---they think it might be cancer. He is literally wasting away, not much more than a mass of curls.
He has been with our family since puppyhood for a decade, and weither others might think so or not he is a family member. It puts us all through emotional hell to see him dying like this..and I am so scared he will die when I am in Minneapolis not Milwaukee and I really won't get to say goodbye. I love my pepe, his being dog and not a human being has no measure/makes no difference. That post was from October.
It happened. My mom called me from Milwaukee (I just moved back to Minneapolis to start second semester 2 days ago!) and said that my sweet "fuzzpants" would be euthanised this afternoon.
About two weeks ago while I was still on break at home his condition rapidly got worse. He lost all his hair, his gums and eyeballs became completely white and the tests came back that he had an intenstinal disease--the vet also thought bone cancer.
Towards the end he was so skinny and weak he could climb anywhere or walk much, he would go outside and colapse into a snowbank. Our other, much fatter and vivacious beagle-hound started whimpering all the time and barking when Pepe would colapse. He now has lost control of all his functions.
I called my Mom and she is sobbing, my brother is making a little grave marker--even my Father who outright abandoned the a family in November has come back to spend more time and be there with Pepe in his last seconds.
This hurts because I can't be with him, I cannot hug or be with him.
It's the first day of school and I still have to go to Hindi tonight, but there is solace in the fact that Pepe no longer has to suffer.
If someone can tell me how to do this, maybe I can upload a picture of him from when he he was healthy.
peace,
Samantha***
