How amazing. Thank you so much for your story. Utter, unconditional love.
I am crying my eyes out right now.I am so sorry for your loss. Last year I lost a pug to a rattlesnake bite. I did not see the snake and my deaf 10 year old walked right into him. The snake bit him on his forehead. My beloved boy was dead in less than 5 minutes.
I went through the “what ifs.....why didn’t I see the snake....what else could I have done..... etc etc etc”. My heart is still broken but your words today and the responses from other Freepers, have given me much comfort. Animals are gifts to us.
My Pepper was a sweet lab, both deaf and blind in her last year, she was amazing as I watched her make her way around the house after she went blind. She would walk the walls and that's how she found the doors to the different rooms. She knew where her food and water was and could still lick clean the little bit of food I left on my dinner plate for her. Its been since Feb. when she decided it was time to go...My son had just filled up the big red step can that held a full bag of food. I had knee surg. just a couple of weeks before & I had to have her put down....She did something she had never done before, sometime during the night she tipped over the whole can of food. When I got up in the morning, still using a leg splint and walker I found her laying on the kitchen floor unable to get up. She must have eaten at least 8 pounds of that food. I cleaned up 17 handfulls of undigested food on the floor of 2 rooms. My daughter cleaned up 11 more and only 1 small pile of diarrhea. We couldn't get her up on her feet, as I sat down beside her and lifted her head, she took a few laps of water and put her head back down. She wasn't a dog that licked you, but she licked my hand after I gave her a drink. I was unable to take her to the special vet that cremated your pet and would give you the ashes if you wanted.
My daughter carried her to her car (all 80 pounds of her) she had put down Peppers special blanket and pillow and she said Pepper licked her hand also and laid her head on her pillow. I couldn't go with her because of the knee surgery. The really great thing the vet did was take a paw print of her, with her name on the plaque. It even has the small amounts of dirt from between her toes in the plaque. I treasure that. I do believe she knew what she was doing when she gorged herself to a point that after all the throwing up she couldn't give any more.
Like your tears in writing about your beautiful cat that came through, writting about Pepper who has been gone since feb. and I didn't think I would cry about her any more. The tears are coming for your Cathy and my Pepper...
Her blindness was from a very rare eye disease that causes a dog to go blind om as short a time as 12 hours to 1 week and there is no cure. The rods and cones in the back of the eyeball suddenly die. It was scary when she went blind, already being deaf and I told her we'll will take it one day at a time as long as she still eats and wags her tail.
She licked our hands but didn't have the energy to wag her tail.....I am crying for both of us...