My mom lost her best friend tonight, her female blue merle collie Olivia. She was the 1st born puppy of 2 other dogs she bought, and was about 7 1/2 years old.
Her dad was hit on the road 5 years ago tomorrow (8/29) and was killed then, and her mom past away not quite a year later due to uterine infection.
Of the other survivors of the litter, my brother has 2 (boomer & Isabelle), her best friend in Alaska has one(Jewel), and the other one (we called him Reuben) was sold locally but have no idea what happened to him after he was picked up. I think there were 2 that didn't make it right after birth.
No idea what happened. Last Saturday morning around 5:30, she had a seizure on the foot of their bed, and had 3 or 4 more throughout the day. The vet's office was closed, so on Monday she brought her in. They drew blood which gave no results, but she was feeling better. On Tuesday (the day my son was born) she seemed to be on the mend and acted almost completely normal. Wednesday I went home for supper and she seemed to be fine again, other than a little fuzzy still. She even chased after a chicken.
Thursday she started to go down hill again, and she progressively got worse as time went on. I went home every day as it seemed she would only eat for me. Mom had some rice & beef for her and she ate pretty well so we had hoped she was getting better. Mom brought her back to the vet for more blood work, but again it came back clean as a whistle. No liver or kidney troubles, no pain in her sides, no sign of infection.
Yesterday I could only get her to eat 1/2 a dish of beef, rice and cottage cheese. She drank a good amount of water though, again giving us hope. Today, she laid around all day, never moved and barely breathed. She finally past away somewhere around 10:30 or so. My mom is pretty distraught over this as she was by her side ever since my brother had died 2 1/2 years ago. A month before he died, I moved into an apartment with my wife (then fiance) and she had always slept on my bed before then so she was very close to me as well.
I'm gonna miss going home and having her grind her butt into me after I sat in her favorite recliner and she insisted on jumping up next to me. She was a great puke alarm for their other collie, Gus, and even my own minnie aussie, Lexi. She was always a gentle, kind, and loving dog who loved little babies and children in general. She would lay at your feet if you didn't feel good, and would put her muzzle under your hand when ever she got the chance.
Keep my mom in your thoughts, as this is gonna be extremely hard on her. She still hasn't been able to talk much about my brother passing, and this is bringing up all of those emotions again as well. Thankfully we have a newborn grandson to distract her some of the time, but we can't be there all of the time and it just won't be the same without her around.
I'm sure as time moves on, the pain will be less but like her parents who have gone before here, we will miss her dearly. I only wish that my son Alex could have gotten to know her. I know they would have hit it off.
Thanks for reading this. I know that a lot of you guys and gals on this board know how truely special the right dog can be, and you can never quite replace them no matter what.
Donovan from Wisconsin
Her dad was hit on the road 5 years ago tomorrow (8/29) and was killed then, and her mom past away not quite a year later due to uterine infection.
Of the other survivors of the litter, my brother has 2 (boomer & Isabelle), her best friend in Alaska has one(Jewel), and the other one (we called him Reuben) was sold locally but have no idea what happened to him after he was picked up. I think there were 2 that didn't make it right after birth.
No idea what happened. Last Saturday morning around 5:30, she had a seizure on the foot of their bed, and had 3 or 4 more throughout the day. The vet's office was closed, so on Monday she brought her in. They drew blood which gave no results, but she was feeling better. On Tuesday (the day my son was born) she seemed to be on the mend and acted almost completely normal. Wednesday I went home for supper and she seemed to be fine again, other than a little fuzzy still. She even chased after a chicken.
Thursday she started to go down hill again, and she progressively got worse as time went on. I went home every day as it seemed she would only eat for me. Mom had some rice & beef for her and she ate pretty well so we had hoped she was getting better. Mom brought her back to the vet for more blood work, but again it came back clean as a whistle. No liver or kidney troubles, no pain in her sides, no sign of infection.
Yesterday I could only get her to eat 1/2 a dish of beef, rice and cottage cheese. She drank a good amount of water though, again giving us hope. Today, she laid around all day, never moved and barely breathed. She finally past away somewhere around 10:30 or so. My mom is pretty distraught over this as she was by her side ever since my brother had died 2 1/2 years ago. A month before he died, I moved into an apartment with my wife (then fiance) and she had always slept on my bed before then so she was very close to me as well.
I'm gonna miss going home and having her grind her butt into me after I sat in her favorite recliner and she insisted on jumping up next to me. She was a great puke alarm for their other collie, Gus, and even my own minnie aussie, Lexi. She was always a gentle, kind, and loving dog who loved little babies and children in general. She would lay at your feet if you didn't feel good, and would put her muzzle under your hand when ever she got the chance.
Keep my mom in your thoughts, as this is gonna be extremely hard on her. She still hasn't been able to talk much about my brother passing, and this is bringing up all of those emotions again as well. Thankfully we have a newborn grandson to distract her some of the time, but we can't be there all of the time and it just won't be the same without her around.
I'm sure as time moves on, the pain will be less but like her parents who have gone before here, we will miss her dearly. I only wish that my son Alex could have gotten to know her. I know they would have hit it off.
Thanks for reading this. I know that a lot of you guys and gals on this board know how truely special the right dog can be, and you can never quite replace them no matter what.
Donovan from Wisconsin
