Our dog and faithful friend Indiana Bones, Indy for short has cancer.
Fuckity fuckity fuck.
It started as a nose bleed, that we first thought might have been a weed seed stuck up his nose. Our regular vet practice (that has had quite a rotation of doctors over the last year) could not find anything except an elevated white cell count.
I went and tracked down one of Indy’s former vets who had opened his own practice.
he called today, the lab tests came back, it is a tumor in his nasal cavity. Indy has between a couple of weeks, and maybe a month. The doctor said we could try chemo, but it probably would not help much, and would not help Indy’s quality of life. The vet said to watch his food intake and activity level, and we will know when it is time.
When my daughter was 10 she came to me and said all she wanted for Christmas was a bicycle and a puppy. On Christmas morning perched on handlebars of her new bike was a stuffed puppy with a note card that said it was a coupon good for one puppy. On the 27th she dragged me down to the animal shelter. She looked at all the puppies and dogs and asked to see a round ball of brown fur that had one ear stuck up, and one that flopped over. When the attendant handed the puppy over, it licked my daughter on the face, and it was all over, she had found her puppy. Or maybe the puppy had found her. We were never sure on that.
Over the years Indy has grown to be an integral part of our family. A ninety pound integral part of our family. He still has one ear stuck up, and the other flopped over.
One time when when my daughter was home alone, a robber broke in Indy protected my daughter from him. he did his job to protect his “pack”. Just ask our mailman, who is convinced that we own Cujo. The mailman shows up, Indy goes berserk, the mailman leaves. Indy thinks he is doing a great job. When our kids moved out, Indy became my wife’s “baby”. She is taking this extra hard. Damn it all, so am I.
Indy has always loved a party, and so my kids are coming home this weekend so we can all get together and have a last get together with Indy before the cancer gets worse.
I have a small favor to ask of my fellow dopers. If you have a dog, or a cat or any type of pet that you can pet, would you pet them a little extra for Indy today? Maybe a scritch behind the ears, or a rub on the chest, and tell them you love them. Thanks.
I want to write more about Indy, but I can’t the tears are making it too tough to see the keyboard.
Your post made me cry. I’m so sorry. My 3 doggies-Chance, Delilah and Ian will all get extra special hugs and scritches tonight and I will tell each how much I love them.
I’m so very sorry to hear about Indy, Rick. I’m in tears. I will give our two dogs, Luke and Maya LOTS of extra kisses and LOTS of extra lovin’, and tell them it’s from Indy.
My heart goes out to you, your family and Indy.
Awwww Rick, that’s terrible news indeed Best wishes to you, your family, and of course to Indy as well. I’ll give Goldie an extra-long tummy rub tonight!
Maggie, Grace, Wolf and Paddy will all get extras in Indy’s honor. Maybe I’ll give them the biggest treat of all and split a can of dogfood amongst the four.
My condolences on the hard news and impending loss.
I’m sorry Rick! Kiara & Sierra will get 2 “cookies” when I finish this post since I haven’t given them theirs yet. Give Indy scritches from us and lots of gentle hugs.
Rick, my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy for what you are going through. Two weeks ago we had to put down our two Goldens. One had a cancer in his mouth and it had spread. He was good for about a month after the diagnosis, but then he went downhill quickly. The other was in very poor health. Both had been with us for 14 1/2 years.
We chose to have a mobile Vet come to the house and put the dogs down. If you are planning to euthanize, I would highly reccomend you do it at home. The Vet was fantastic. She sedated the dogs with oral medication first so they truly felt nothing. We were able to love on them throughout the entire procedure. The Vet was great about getting us to talk about the dogs and tell stories of all the goofy things they did during the years we had them. My 14 year old daughter did not want to be home at all, but my 9 year old did and she handled it like a champ. Seeing that the dogs were not in pain meant so much to her.
It is never easy to say good bye to a part of your family. Hold on to all those great memories of Indy.
Everybody,
Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and words. They mean more to me than I can express. abbeytxs I will give that some thought, but I am not sure if that is the way for us to go. Indy’s new/old vet was so caring and I could hear the hurt in his voice on the phone. I think that maybe he should be the one. I also don’t know if my wife will want to be there.
Anyway we do it, it is gonna be hard, I can tell you that.
One of the reasons I started this thread, is so that I could have a remembrance of Indy. I believe that as long as you remember, they aren’t really gone. I hope that doesn’t sound too silly or stupid.
Thanks again for all the kind words. Maybe more later, too many tears right now.
