Not easy to post this. Early February we noticed our our almost 10 year old Great Dane, Grrr, had a bit of a limp in her rear leg and was holding her tail funny. After a few trips to our vet and some x-rays that revealed nothing conclusive and with thing getting rapidly worse, we went to a specialist were a ct scan revealed a large lump along her spinal cord. The specialist informed us surgery was an option to remove as much of it as possible, then chemo, followed by removing her leg and a long recovery. After talking to our vet, and some tough decision making, we decided we didn't want to put her through all of that and to just enjoy what time we had left. We had plans to do a road trip this summer in an old 4Runner I was going to build up over the spring for some camping/overlanding. I was on a short timeline, but over the course of a few days I built a sleeping platform in the back of the truck, added a battery isolator with a small auxiliary battery to charge our stuff at night and run a heated blanket, we picked up a wheelchair for her and we hit the road. We went from Edmonton down to Moab, UT, couple days in Page, AZ and then across to Nevada, spent some time in Death Valley before heading to the California coast and working our way up through Oregon and Washington. In the end we did over 8000kms in 16 days, we would spend 2-3 nights in the truck and then a night in a motel. We had a couple more weeks with her at home after we got back before we had to finally say goodbye.
never_be_sold 's post should be like a sticky or something... thanks for sharing man. Not to try to take away from his story but we now have 3 more: I'm sure there will be photos and videos to follow...
Loosing a pet is never easy, sorry to hear it. Pets are a crazy concept... to love something so pure, the only pain they cause you is the pain when they pass.
Thanks everyone. She will always hold a large part of my heart being with me through half of my life through the good and the bad. She was a trooper. I'll miss her big green eyes and her ragged purr. I am thankful I stayed and got to hold her while she passed. I won't trade being there for her when she needed me most. Hardest thing I've ever done next to being with my Gramp when he passed. Heartbreaking.
Meet Sassy She was born in late February, we adopted her in early May. Jack Russell Terrier. Our 14 year old Shih Tsu/Maltese passed away in April, and my wife was devastated. This little energetic bundle of joy and love is so fun!
I've never been a dog person, but I was pretty saddened by Cal's passing. It hit me harder than I thought it would. I'm totally in love with this little critter, though!
Been a while since I’ve posted. We recently drove from Calgary to Fredericton with our two cats in two combined crates/cages in the back seat of the truck. Vern, our tripod cat licks/cleans his “nub” habitually anytime he’s stressed out and he had licked it pretty much bald within a few days. Somewhere along the way be banged it on something (either the wire cage, or jumping onto/off of something in a hotel room maybe) and broke the skin. Needless to say, within a day of landing in Fredericton, we had to take the jerk to the vet to have his nub cleaned/stitched. Now he wears the cone of shame for a few weeks. His sister Ogo was great on the drive and has settled in nicely.
I'm not looking forward to making the drive with my cat. She's a screamer. Luckily it's only 4 hrs for me vs you guys! Paws crossed for quick healing of the nub!
