Rest in peace our dearest Sweet Pea

It’s with great sadness that I tell you that we took Sweet Pea down to the vet this morning (Friday) to be put down. Last Friday when I went to work things were pretty-much- normal…except that one of the babies had been poo’ing “soup” for a few days…and as of that morning I found some blood in it. I told Jeannie (she has Fridays off) and she monitored things, and turns out it was Sweet Pea. She got her to the vet and they did what they do... ran tests and such, but by the time I came home from work she was lying there nearly ‘comatose’…couldn’t even stand up let-alone walk. That was a VERY rapid decline in her condition from breakfast time. We nursed her thru the weekend and this week waiting to see if there would be any recovery/bounce-back…and there was some…but not much. This morning she turned down all food and I had to carry her outside to potty (again). She could sometimes pull herself up to standing these last few days (it looked terribly painful) and walk, but you could tell it was very hard for her. I have been helping her up into a standing position most of the week. Once standing she would just stand there and gain her composure...eventually she would try to take a few steps...sometimes it worked, sometimes she’d just fall (the rear legs seemed to be giving out).

So…we both knew it was time, and Jeannie got us an appointment at our vet for this morning so I came home from work and we took her down (sadly the vet couldn’t come to our house this time like she did for Sydney). But Sweet Pea was a real trooper as both mommy and daddy had a very hard time on that drive. But unlike Sydney who needed a 2^nd dose of the anesthesia to finally stop her heart, Sweet Pea went very quick and easy…she was definitely very tired and done…she had given us her all. We have no idea truly how old she was, but we had her for 12 ½ years now, and we think she was AT LEAST 2 when we got her in late 2003 (she was fully grown and already had a silver muzzle by then...and the Humane Society's best 'guess' was "around two"...but I'm guessing they fudged that a teensy bit because most people want younger dogs).

And so…we imagine PG will be sad over the coming days, as she will surely miss her friend. Jeannie told me PG was standing by the front door after I left to go back to work, and running around looking for her. I know when I came home from work she met me at the car and just looked at me, then peered inside the car. Seems to me she certainly is wondering where her sister/best friend is...they've been buddies a LONG time in people-years, let-alone dog -years! So we'll see how dinnertime goes tonight. PG and Sweet Pea have been eating dinner inches from each other for a LONG time now (we have a three-bowl raised feeder...Sydney was at the right end, PG on the left, and Sweet Pea in the middle). This last week when Sweet Pea wasn't able to charge out to dinner as usual I'd put down PG's and then Sophies dinners and go get Sweet Pea (Sophie eats on the OTHER side of the room...she's WAY to food-agressive to eat next to her sisters...she'd bulll them right out of the way and get their food if we let her). PG typically wouldn't eat until Sweet Pea was there.

Our hearts are shattered once again at the loss of our sweet girl, but we don't regret a moment of our lives with her. We are so VERY happy that she came to US to live and enrich our lives. She will surely be missed, as she was SO very sweet…Jeannie named her right for sure. We have tons of wonderful memories of our SWEET little girl. I know as I type this I terribly miss her sitting at my feet under the computer-desk, where she ALWAYS sat when I was at the computer. She loved to follow me around, and I already miss that SO much.

Here she is not quite a week ago resting peacefully on the baby-bed in our living room. She was NEVER happy to get her picture taken, so nobody but us ever really saw her with any kind of a happy face.

 

 And this sadly is her last picture, taken just this morning. She didn't eat any of her food at breakfast today, and even declined the twice-daily cheese-blob (with her pills in it....she NEVER declined it before). I think she was telling us it was time. She had another tumor growing on her rear leg (right on the knee...you can sort of see it in this picture). She was way too old to attempt another surgery, and we were about to remove her from her pain killer/anti-inflammatory prescription (we'd get her on a diff medicine due to the steroids reacting badly with her current meds) and have the tumor injected with a steroid to shrink it and give her more time. The vet is pretty sure there were tumors on her organs causing her recent rapid decline. We could tell that her usual 'happy to be alive smiling as she prances down to the mailbox' every-day attitude was gone this last week. We hope we didn't wait to long and she was suffering (dogs are known to hide their pain, it's a pack thing), but we had to give her a chance to rebound. It became apparent to us both that it wasn't going to happen, so we made the HARD call.

Many months ago she was having some problems (drinking about a gallon of water a day, and then unable to make it thru the night without wetting her bed)...so we had her at the vet and she had a bladder infection, and her kidneys were starting to fail. So Jeannie researched it and we started making her food ourselves, using a "kidney friendly" recipe of high-fat ground beef, frozen veggies, brown rice and eggs. She has been doing so very well all these months, we were hopeful that it would just go on 'forever'...of which obviously wasn't going to happen.

Sweet Pea....we miss you more than we can say, and you'll always have a big place in our hearts! Your pain is gone now and you can now run in the soft grass with Sydney. We thank you with all our hearts for your patience and unconditional love for us over your life you so happily shared.

Goodbye our SWEET little girl.You will NEVER be forgotten!