Missing our little lady "Daisy"
Today was a very sad day. We had to put our little lady, Daisy down. 6 years ago I was searching through Petfinders.com and came across this scrappy 4 year old Boston Terrier. She was located about 2 hours from us and there was just something about her...I knew I was meant to rescue her. So, we packed up the car along with Hemet & Augie (Hemet was our first Boston Terrier, we had to put him down 2 years ago). We drove into this dusty little town and down a dirt road to his old house. The woman was very nice and went to get this little girl I saw on the internet. She came trotting into the run, chest out and immediately went up to Augie grabbed his neck and pinned him to the ground. Basically letting him know that she was boss. She didn't do that to Hemet though, because he was the Alpha dog. After she did that, she was fine with Augie, but Augie never forgot that and basically ignored her, up until recently. She was a brindle boston and we think about 4 years old. The woman told us that she was part of a puppy mill and they think had had at least 2 litters of pups. She wasn't allowed in the house, lived in a kennel and her owners dropped her off at the vet and never came to get her. That just broke my heart...I had to take her home and give her a wonderful life.
Well, it was obvious that she had never lived in a house, because she wasn't house trained. She wasn't grass trained either and would only go to the bathroom on the cement patio in the back. She was also a dumpster digger, she'd break into the trash and get anything that she could (plastic, aluminum foil, paper towels, etc...). She was very sweet but not affectionate and very alouf, almost like a cat. I don't think she knew how to trust anyone. We finally house-trained her and she became part of the pack. A couple months after we got her she started to get sick with diarrhea, we found out she had giardia and nasty parasite. This is when the trouble began. Over the past 6 years she was diagnosed with Irritable bowel disease, colitis, 2 more bouts with giardia and most recently lymphangiectasia, which is a horrible disease where the lymph system doesn't absorb protein or fats, so the dog wastes away. She always had horrible diarrhea and would loose weight and then gain some back and then loose again. She was just diagnosed with lymphangastasia in March of this year and she started going downhill, fast.
We found this wonderful vet who is known as the guru of the GI Tract, he's known worldwide and he happened to be here in Los Angeles. So I called him first and then emailed him (attaching a picture of her). His assistant called me back to inform me that he doesn't take patients anymore, he only does conferences and teaches at universities...BUT something about the picture and story grabbed his heart too and he agreed to take her case! How cool is that. He tried things no other vet tried or even spoke to us about but her body couldn't tolerate a few of them them and 2 weeks ago her white count went to 200 (normal for a dog is 10,000) and she got a horrible infection and had to be in the hospital for 2 days. After antibiotics her white count went back up, but then her liver enzymes came back off the charts and her protein levels were super low. Not good. We tried so many things over the years, so many medicines so many different foods, you name it, we tried it. Our new wonderful doctor couldn't even help her. Her disease was just too far along and her little body just couldn't fight anymore. We looked at her this morning and she wasn't the dog we knew and her eyes told me it was time. We wanted someone to come to the house to put her down, but couldn't get an appointment until tomorrow, we knew we couldn't wait that long, it just wasn't fair to her. So we took her over to the vets, wrapped in her favorite blanket and I held her and kissed her until she took her last breath. Although with that last breath, I did feel a sigh of relief from her. She was tired, tired of fighting and tired of feeling bad, she was ready to go and we were ready to let her go. We've cried all day. I know it was the most humane, unselfish thing we could do for her, but it's also the hardest.
I would show you more pictures of her but I don't have any good ones. She never wanted her picture taken and if a camera would come out she would either turn away or get up and walk away. This picture was taken by me at a vacation house in Palm Springs last September, she loved that house (we stayed for 2 weeks) and she loved laying in the sun by the pool. I had to lay on the kitchen floor and sneak the camera around the corner to get the shot. It's the most beautiful picture of her. She did finally learn to trust us and would wag her little paint brush of a tail all the time, she finally gave us a kiss after being with us for 2 years, what a great moment. She had a wonderful life with us, she slept on the bed, had all the food she wanted, had great vacations, went to the dog park everyday, and got so much love.
It's quiet around here without her. The whole pack misses her right now. We will always miss her.
I'm so sorry to hear about your sad news x
Posted by:Zoe | July 26, 2007 at 08:29 AM
I'm so sorry to hear about your sad news x
Posted by:Zoe | July 26, 2007 at 08:29 AM
I'm so sorry to hear about your sad news x
Posted by:Zoe | July 26, 2007 at 08:29 AM