it's time
I'm sitting up tonight with my little old Cairn Terrier Patrick. He's been slowing down over the past several years and is almost completely blind (he might be completely blind now), so he's been quite limited in what he can do. Still, until just recently he's seemed pretty content to putter around in the yard when I take him out (not so much since it's been cold and snowy -- that's been hard lately), and just kind of lounge around the house and munch his food. We had his parents and sold him as a puppy. When the woman who bought him went back to work her children didn't want to take care of him, so we took him back. He's always be a good, happy little guy. When he was younger he quite enjoyed hanging out with the other dogs and as he got older he just enjoyed doing his own thing.
But over the last couple of days he's really gone downhill and yesterday he stopped eating. This is a dog who loves food, so that's not good. He's now stopped drinking in the last several hours. He also started having trouble controlling his bowels and bladder and now seems to have no control at all. I've been fighting a losing battle to keep him fairly clean. He also seems to be having trouble breathing. Right now I have him laying on a big towel on the sofa where I was trimming off a lot of his fur so I can clean him up a bit. He's sleeping now, so I hate to bother him by giving him a little sponge bath (he really smells bad). He seems more comfortable than he has in several hours now, but I suspect it's because he's too weak to fight anymore.
I'm going to stay up the rest of the night with him so I can try to make him as comfortable as possible and in the morning I'll call the vet and have him put to sleep.
But over the last couple of days he's really gone downhill and yesterday he stopped eating. This is a dog who loves food, so that's not good. He's now stopped drinking in the last several hours. He also started having trouble controlling his bowels and bladder and now seems to have no control at all. I've been fighting a losing battle to keep him fairly clean. He also seems to be having trouble breathing. Right now I have him laying on a big towel on the sofa where I was trimming off a lot of his fur so I can clean him up a bit. He's sleeping now, so I hate to bother him by giving him a little sponge bath (he really smells bad). He seems more comfortable than he has in several hours now, but I suspect it's because he's too weak to fight anymore.
I'm going to stay up the rest of the night with him so I can try to make him as comfortable as possible and in the morning I'll call the vet and have him put to sleep.
posted by eek at 3:05 AM
4 Comments:
I'm so sorry. :(
Bless your heart for taking such good care of the old fellow. He sounds like a fantastic dog, try to focus on all the good times you shared with him. My thoughts are with you.
oh, i'm so sorry about patrick. my thoughts are with you both.
don't worry about your long reply. just know that i was very appreciative of your advice. but about the "not good enough"~~i guess i didn't realize i'm not alone in that thinking. and a million thanks for the site suggestion. as far as inventory goes, for me i have more than enough. i'm pretty prolific in that area. i'll definitely check it out. right now i'm in the process of locating a buyer to sell my greeting cards. in fact, this tuesday i'm going to talk to the owner of a local shop a few blocks down from where i work. wish me luck. in april every year here in fort worth there is a huge art festival downtown. while it's too late to do anything this year (the deadline has already passed...), a couple of friends of mine and i are already trying to get our ducks in a row for next year, splitting booth rental and all that.
you're absolutely right about having to "put myself out there". all my life that has been difficult for me, as i am quite shy. but here lately i have done it, and it's been paying off. that's how i met the church!! last summer in dallas steve was the first person to come out after the show. while he was signing my ticket i thought that instead of just having him sign and thank him and walk away, that maybe i should introduce myself. quite a stretch for me, because like i said, i am very shy. i said "steve, i'm veleska, do you remember me?" i was referring to his blog. and he lit up like a light bulb and said "veleska1970!!! yes, i remember you!!!" and then turned to the other people waiting for autographs and said i was a famous person on his blog. i was surprised that not only did he remember me, but he was the one who put the "1970" in there. so, to make a long story short, my "putting myself out there" worked, and i not only got just his autograph, but three pix with him also chitchat as well.
sorry this was long. see, i like to talk, too. :) i'll let you know how it goes tuesday.
well, a belated status report on finding a buyer for my cards, as promised: nothing to report. i decided that i need a more...uh..."finished" product to present. so, i'm in the process of scraping together my pennies...hopefully in another month.
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