Dog's Death

Cookie died while I was at work today. But I think she had a good last week.

Last Tuesday, she had a very bad day as I talked about in my last post. I was seriously going to take her into the vet to be put down last Wednesday. But then she seemed to get better – a LOT better. She hadnt been eating her dry food so I bought her a bunch of mushy food and I bought her her favorite snacks. It was almost as if she thought, “Well, I *was* going to check out but now that the service around here has finally gotten better, I think I’ll stick around for a while.”

So I didnt take her to the vet last Wednesday and instead I took her up to the lake. That is one of her favorite places and I thought she could get worse any minute and it would be nice if folks got a chance to say goodbye. But she didnt get worse, she got better. We even took a short walk that night. I took her back up to the lake on Friday. She was so excited to go that she did her little happy dance that she always would do where she would turn in circles and bark at me to hurry my ass up because we needed to go to the lake RIGHT NOW!!!

She had a really nice day at the lake on Saturday with my folks while I spent some time with a friend. Then I picked her up and brought her back home where she jumped on the couch and watched squirrels out of the window with my other dog Brooke. She went on a few adventures in the yard but mostly she slept (very peacefully). I spent some time rubbing her belly while lying in bed watching movies which is pretty much what we did Sunday too. She had to go outside a lot because her medication made her thirsty. I kept feeding her all the mushy food and special treats she wanted to eat and she seemed to be enjoying that, even going so far as to stand in the kitchen staring up at the cupboard where I keep the treats until I walked in and gave her some (which I did, of course).

Anyhow, she was doing so well that part of me thought that maybe I should tone it down with the ‘giving the dog whatever she wants’ thing because although I really loved Cookie, I know that she was just the sort of dog to take advantage of such a situation. I know this because she wasnt really my dog. She was my uncle’s dog or maybe it would be better to say that he was her person. There was no doubt who was in charge between the two of them and it wasnt my uncle! At my house, Cookie generally had to content herself with bossing the cat but she did that with such gusto it was hilarious.

But then this morning, she had a really hard time getting outside to pee and she wouldnt take a treat from me when she got back in. I came home for lunch around 3p and she wouldnt get out of bed nor would she take a treat from me. I pet her for 10 minutes or so before I had to go back to work. She didnt look in pain but she didnt look particularly well either.

And when I got home at 8p, she was dead.

I found a box in my basement and put her in it and then put the box in my car. I think my vet can arrange a cremation so I’ll take her there in the morning.

This is a picture I took of her a month or two ago.