Lassie is fourteen years old. She’s a Westie (I did NOT name her), and a pretty good dog. Most of you know I’m not a dog person at all, but I do love my dog, even though her breath smells like kitty litter, even when she’s grouchy, or jumpy. She’s a very good dog, extremely well trained, behaved, and alert.
She’s snappy-mostly because she’s old and has arthritis, but she’s usually in a good mood, very silly and she’s just always been there. It’s because of her I’m not really afraid of dogs anymore-(a little nervous if I see a large dog at a friend’s house that tries to jump on me, but that’s it!).
But she’s still old and the last couple days, she’s been tired and throwing up constantly. She was sluggish, and very quiet-she didn’t even make a single noise if you picked her-not even her little groaning growl she makes (my mom calls it her “purr” because she thinks she’s a cat).
Well, this morning, my mother and my sister took her to the vet’s. It turns out, she has pancreatitis, severe liver failure, and she’s in a lot of pain. They took her to an emergency animal center, where she is now, on pain killers-they’re going to monitor her for about 24 hours-but they don’t think she’ll even make it until the end of the day.
My mother’s going to take me later to see her-I at least want to say goodbye. Good GOD, she’s such a good dog, and she doesn’t cause nearly as much trouble as the cats-(her only faults are eating kitty litter and getting fussy at times).
Right now I’m just sort of numb. It’s not as bad as when Tess died-if only because Tess was a kitten. This illness just hit us, but Lassie is fourteen years old, and so it’s more like when Fluffy died.
I just want her to be out of pain and in comfort. But I’ll miss her.
)