Golden has one heck of a tumur.

[Boondox]

Dan -- It's three in the morning and I couldn't sleep, thinking about your loss and my own precious Molson, Alpha male extraordinaire, who is too old and stiff to come upstairs to sleep with the family anymore. So I slipped out of bed, shuffling my way around Tetley, Glenfiddich, Penny and Tuppence, and made my way downstairs to find the old boy sleeping on the couch near the woodstove. Chucked a few more pieces of firewood into the beast and sat on the floor next to the couch. When Molson realized he wasn't alone anymore he inched his way to the edge and put his muzzle on one of my shoulders, a paw on the other. A remarkable dog in every sense of the word, and I'll miss him greatly when his time comes.

Thinking of you and Chase.

Pete

 

[dmccarty]

Marty and Pete,

Dogs, pets in general, but I think dogs are really good at
attaching to ones soul.....

When I got Kelly 6 years ago, wow I did not realize she is 6, it still seems like she is a puppy, but it took me quite a bit of
time to take her home. I knew my life would never be the
same once that puppy went home. And someday I would
have to mourn her passing. It took alot of hard thought
to figure out if I wanted to go through that loss again...

Course I made the right decsion! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif But she will tear
my heart out one day, the fiesty bi...ch! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

My wife spent the last few nights of Chase's life sleeping on
the floor or couch nearest Chase...

More than a few years ago the five of us, Two Two Legs and
Three Four Legs went to the beach. We stayed at a beach
house that was built on stilts. So the first floor is really the
second and the second is really the third. Well Thrope had
four bad legs, maybe one good one at the point but there was
no way that old fat dog could climb the stairs so I had to
carry 100+ pounds of dog up those stairs and down the steps
when she had to go to the bathroom. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif The first
morning we where there I had to carry the dog down three
flights of stairs. As I was walking out the front door, I had to
turn my torso to catch the door, no easy task with The Big
Dog, and twisted a muscle in my back. A REAL bad pull. It
put me on my back for the rest of the vacation except when
I HAD to get the dog in and out.

No this was not to bad since I just wanted to relax but it was
the weekend that Princess Di had died so all that was on
TV was news coverage of her life and death!!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I
about lost what little mind I had left! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

What we do for our dogs!!!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later,
Dan

 

[TresCrows]

"but I think dogs are really good at
attaching to ones soul....."

I agree, it is a mysterious and
powerful bond that can--not always--but can develop between a Dog and a human and other household animals too. You are so lucky to have had this friendship.

I wonder sometimes if Dogs see through the layers of crap we humans throw up and see the real us. I know the far right Christian--please--no religious discussion or put down intended--do not gift animals with everlasting souls--I think there is one exception perhaps--DOGS---in the beginning of time when all other abandoned us for our having turned on God, God gave us the Dog to protect us and remain as a reminder of paradise lost, what he gave the Dog in return for being our keeper was an eternal soul, for this the Dog was also forever lost to Paradise and shunned by all other animals though unlike humans it remained innocent, forever staking it's destiny with ours. Dogs are our soul mates and I am positive they will await us on the other side. That is the only real comfort I can give you. J

 

[kiphorn]

Dan-

I'm sorry to hear about Chase. I know how you must feel as I have been in your shoes on several occasions. Its tough to lose a friend and faithful companion.

I' haven't been on line much because we've been busy preparing for the move into the new house and most recently dealing with cancer in our lab.

Several weeks ago we noticed unusual bleeding from his mouth. He's an agressive bone chewer so we chalked it up to that. When the bleeding continued I looked into his mouth and saw a mass.

The mass was biopsied and came back as osteosarcoma (bone cancer). I originally decided that I would keep him confortable and allow him to pass with out any radical surgeries or cancer treatments because I thought that it would be too hard on him. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided I needed to find out for sure that there was nothing that could be done before I did nothing. I owed him that. We went to a Vetinary Oncologist who indicated the cancer was small and that we found it early. She recommended surgery and sent us to another specialist. We then went to the surgeon who looked at him. Both doctors agreed that the surgery was not radical and that the prospects were relatively good. I listened to the doctors and had a surgical procedure done that removed the mass and part of the upper jaw bone. Aside from losing 4 of the small teeth between the canines, you can not tell anything was done.

Unfortunately, the biopsy result from the surgery came back that inicated there was still cancer cells in his jaw bone. I then got information on radiation therapy. It was expensive but how could I turn back now. If I did it would be saying that he wasn't worth the money. Well he's worth every penny I got so we elected to do the radiation.

Two treatments under our belt with two to go. So far there have been absolutely no side affects. He didn't even show any side affects from the surgery where they removed the teeth and the bone. Our vet said that dogs have a unique way of dealing with pain and that he's seen dogs with compund fractures that are happy and wagging their tails. Go figure.

Before I went to see the specialists, I sat down with my dog and spoke to him. I was asking for foregiveness knowing that some day I'd have to put him down. I wanted to make sure he knew how it was tearing me up and that he deserved better. As I was holding him and crying he jumped up ran across the room, grabbed his bone and brought it to me to play. I took it that he understood and that we were supposed to have fun and play as much as we could while we still could. After that moment there was no doubt that I needed to seek an opinion from a specialist. I'm glad I did.

I know there are no guarantees with cancer procedures but I think and hope that we did the right thing. So far he's been fine (no side affects) which was my biggest concern. If it gets us more time with him great. But at least I know I did everything that was possible to help him. And as I said before, he deserves that.

Again, I'd like to express how sorry I am over your loss. I know it hasn't been easy for you or your family.

Take care,

Kip

 

[dmccarty]

Kip,

I answered this post in our email yesterday.

The other thing I did forget to add was to talk to other vets
about your dogs treatment. I think I posted the Dog Cancer
group my wife has been talking with during Chase's illness. I
can't say enough good things about the group.

I also can't say enough good things about the vets in three
practices that treated Chase. People always complain about
the problems but seldom praise. Even a few weeks after
Chase has gone they have been helpful and concerned. I'm
very thankful to them....

Later,
Dan