Friday night I got done work around 8:30pm. My roommate had text me earlier asking if I would be coming home or staying at Brent’s. He and I decided already to spend the night at my house and care for Kaleigh, my 15 yr old Border Collie. A couple of days prior she had taken a turn for the worse. She could no longer get up on her own and stopped eating. She could walk around once she was helped up. I limited my time away but of course still had to go to work.
I had her on Rimadyl, a prescription pain reliever for dogs and hoped this would help as it had before. My roommate is a veterinarian and never asked if I was coming home after work. I got that feeling…when you know something was off. She also told me that her chihuahua Yoda ate one of Kaleighs Rimadyl and she was taking him to the ER to barf. Little bugger.
I called on the way to my car, she told me she’d be back soon and that she’d be up. This sounds like nothing, but it’s out of the ordinary to relay that info to me. My only issue was that Brent may not be done work for potentially another two hours. I wanted him with me. I knew in my heart that Sunday would probably be the day. I had been quite upset the days before and just wanted him there, but I didn’t want to wait too long in case something awful happened. Luckily, he was done about 45 minutes later. I was already waiting at his house. He arrived, packed his bag, grabbed a steak and we were off to my house.
Earlier in the week Jen (my roommate) said that she didn’t think we’d have to consider euthanasia any time soon, but I had a bad feeling it was closer than that. We got to my house, started making dinner and Jen came in. She found a large abdominal tumor on Kaleigh which would explain everything. Her recent blood work didn’t show anything, but that’s normal. It was horrible, but a relief. Her quality of life was awful and I did t want her to live like that. She wasn’t going to get better and wouldn’t be able to handle surgery. I decided that the next morning would be the best time. Jen would go in on her day off to perform the euthanasia.
So that night we snuggled Kaleigh…even though she just wants to lay on the floor. She struggled to go out as I helped her, and started having accidents. She wouldn’t eat a thing. The next morning Brent joked that we should get a pizza delivered so she can eat the crust…it was her favorite. We did and sure enough she inhaled two pieces of crust! I’m so happy we did that.
Her time came and we went to the vet. Slowly she walked across the lot and through a bit of the store…gotta get those last smells in! Brent stayed in the room with me, which I didn’t expect him to do. We said goodbye.
I’ve never had to put down a pet before. I did work as a vet tech over a decade ago, so I had some familiarity with the process. It’s hard. It’s impossible. But it’s a gift we give to our little friends when they can’t go on. I’ll miss her forever, but it was the right thing to do and I am very lucky to have Jen and Brent in my life.
I love you Kaleigh!
The Unlikely Liveaboard 