I am completely hating this entire week and just want it to be over. Or better yet I wish it had never started.
Monday afternoon my brother was coming home from picking his daughter up at school. Just as he got into my mother's yard one of her puppies, her favorite one, Tess, ran under the wheels of the pickup and was killed. My mother, who rarely gets completely upset about the death of her animals is devastated.
Tess, a Blue Heeler, was only a few months old. She was actually a replacement, for lack of a better word, for another Blue Heeler my mother had bought from a breeder. We brought the first baby home late one afternoon and she was dead by the next day. She died of parvo, a virus that she should have been vaccinated against and would have been within the next day or so. So, when the breeder had another litter of pups my mother went and chose Tess.
She was a loving, friendly, little pup who always wanted to be as close to my mother as possible and thoroughly believed she belonged inside the house.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I took my female Rottweiler, Mia, to the vet because she was barely able to stand. Her back legs just wouldn't support her. When she did manage to get to a standing position she'd just sway and if she took a few steps she looked like she was drunk.
Last Thursday she was completely fine. Friday afternoon when I went out to feed the dogs she looked drunk and wouldn't lay one foot straight. Saturday she just seemed to really be favoring one foot although she barely ate her dinner. Sunday and Monday she didn't seem any better but she didn't seem any worse. I did notice her nails were really long and I trimmed them thinking that was why she wouldn't lay her foot down. Tuesday she was worse and by yesterday she was standing lean.
By time I got her from home to the vet, about 10 minutes away, she was breathing hard and twitching. Her eyes were also going back and forth. He said she was really suffering. He offered two courses of action, try and pump her up with antibiotics and see if that would bring her back or put her down. He held out little hope though that the antibiotics could or would be able to do anything for her except prolong her suffering. So, although my heart was breaking, I had her put down.
Mia came to me in a round about way. My older brother, Alex, bought her and my mother bought her brother but Alex's other female kept beating her up and Mia was always at my house. She only went home to eat and even then only some of the time. Eventually, I just bought her from Alex. I'm not overly fond of Rottweilers but she needed a safe home and she was always here anyway. But she was an ill-fated dog from the start. Absolutely everything that was passing by managed to get her. When there was a hurricane in the area and an old tree got knocked down a swarm of bees attacked her. Then there were fleas and whereas everyone else had a few that were easily gotten rid of she was absolutely covered from head to tail and it took a long time to get rid of them. Then it was ticks and she's always the worst for worms. No matter how many times I medicate her for intestinal worms she always had them. And she was never able to put on and keep on any weight. All in all, she was just a sickly dog no matter what I did for her.
So, while I am going to miss her and my heart is aching for my loss, I know she is in a better place and she's out of pain and bounding happily through meadows of grass playing with my other babies who have gone before.
Rest in peace Tess and Mia! We miss you both so much!
Sadly
-Rainforest Mommy
