Farewell to Our Sweet Lady

(Lady front, Jack back)

One of our sweet little girls, Lady, died Monday night. She was one of our two puppies (I say puppies because they’re our babies, not because they’re actual puppies. They’re both about six years old.) Lady was our golden retriever, lab mix. We got her when she was about six months old at the Humane Society in San Angelo. She had been abused and was initially afraid of Sheldon.

She finally warmed up to us in a few months and her little tail started to wag. It was the beginning of a fun six years with her. We got Jack, our husky mix, when Lady was starting to lighten up a bit. They became inseparable. Even when the little devils escaped from our backyard (on several occasions), they were always found together. They never left each other’s side.

Lady’s eyes always gave her away. She couldn’t speak human language, but I’d know what she was thinking most of the time. She had deep brown eyes and golden eyelashes. One movement of her eyebrow and you’d know if she was annoyed or happy. When she had done something wrong she’d put her head down, but her eyes would look up at you and she would bat her eyelashes slowly hoping you’d think she was really cute and no longer in trouble.

Our little Lady seemed really depressed when we came back from vacation at the end of June. We thought she’d snap out of it once we gave her more attention, but that wasn’t the case. She stopped eating and she would barely move all day long. Sheldon tried to feed her dog treats, ham from our fridge, and soft dog food. She wouldn’t go for any of it, which was unusual.

We let her stay in the house at night, and we’d have to carry her outside in the morning because she refused to move. We noticed her nose was dry and she stopped drinking water also. We thought we’d try taking her for a walk because she’d always get really excited about walking.

We took the leashes outside and she actually got up and was wagging her tail waiting to be leashed. Her eyes looked so excited, but her body wasn’t following. We walked out to the driveway and we passed two houses when she stopped. She wouldn’t budge.

After 15 minutes of trying to coax her into moving, we decided that wasn’t going to work so Sheldon carried her back to our backyard. This was Friday, July 4th. We tried to call our vet on Saturday, but they weren’t open their usual hours because of the holiday weekend.

Monday morning Sheldon was able to get Lady in to see the vet. After a series of tests, the vet called Sheldon in the afternoon to let him know that Lady had a pancreatic disease and had a 50/50 chance of living. However, the vet said if she responded well to the IV they had her on, she would have a good chance of making it.

Around 5 p.m. I called to get an update on Lady. Sheldon said she was responding well to the IV, so she should be fine overnight. I decided not to go see her.

The next morning around 7:30 the vet called to tell Sheldon that Lady didn’t make it through the night. Our little girl was gone.

I was devastated. Though it’s hard to lose a pet, I’m thankful that she died peacefully on her own, and Sheldon and I didn’t have to make the decision to put her down.

We were both scheduled to leave town Tuesday at noon for work functions – Sheldon in Galveston and me in Austin. Jack was taken to a boarding kennel where at least he would be with other dogs while we were gone and we wouldn’t have to worry about him.

What’s amazing to me about dogs is their sense that something is wrong, or new, or changing. The morning the vet called Sheldon Jack went to his side and started whining. At that point, I didn’t even know Sheldon was on the phone with the vet, so I hadn’t been given the news yet, but Jack knew.

With a new baby on the way, we can’t even think about getting another dog right now. I hope Jack will do ok by himself. I guess we’ll have to spoil him even more and enjoy the time we get to spend with him.
(I’ll post a picture of Lady soon).