Sunday, November 15, 2009

quiet miracles

last monday my husband came home to find our precious dog on the floor unable to get up on her own. it was time for the hard talk. we made the decision and i told him he had to call our daughter who was away at school and tell her. i was unable to at the time for purely emotional reasons. she had to be given the opportunity to come home and be here. we made the decision to have things taken care of by saturday. we are very fortunate to have a wonderful vet who makes house calls and she was set to come by sometime in the early evening on saturday.

tuesday the pup was no better. wednesday pretty much the same...

but...

sometime in the night she had gotten up on her own and got off her bed. i know this because later that night i woke up to hear her getting back on her bed. she sleeps on the floor next to my side of the bed.

thursday she was getting up on her own. she was a little shaky but she was doing it. by thursday evening she was doing so much better.

friday. friday she was looking like her old self. well, the old self that is still a very old dog but, still. friday evening when our daughter got in we had made the decision that we would have the vet still come over, see how the puppers was doing, see if any hard decisions needed to be made at that time.

saturday she was doing so well we decided that when we talked to the vet it would be with the purpose of finding out what we should look for; what we should keep an eye out for; how we could be sure we weren't jumping the gun. late saturday we got a call from our vet that she was running late. she had been out that day with her little family and they had just gotten back. i told her what was going on and we made the decision for her to come by on sunday instead.

when we lost andre we had really let it go far beyond the point we should have. we were all in denial. my husband said he didn't want to let things go so far with rene. we also didn't want to err on the other side and let her go too soon. it was so helpful to talk to our vet and have her tell us what to look for so we could make the right decision at the right time.

she was, quite frankly, amazed that rene is still doing so well considering her advanced age, her failing liver and her loss of muscle mass in her hind-quarters. you just wouldn't know it to look at her. the vet agreed with us that now is not the time. rene is really doing well. she doesn't appear to be in a lot of pain, she still gets excited for her treats, her food and her walkies with her daddy.

our quiet miracle. she is still with us.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

SO happy she's ok for now. I know FAR too well how that feels. My mom's lab lived to 17, WAY past what a lab should live to. His last few months were struggles, and the last 2 days were unbearable. My mom kept trying to fix him. But finally one day, he looked at her just the right way and she knew.

You'll know.... she'll tell you. Just listen. :)

xoxo