hxdrummerxc
Boxer Pal
Hello,
First let me give a little information about our Darla. She is actually a boxer/lab mix. But the boxer side of her personality really stood out and she was actually the reason that me and my wife decided to get a boxer puppy (roxie) a couple of years ago when we moved out of my parents house..... (One of the hardest parts for me about this..... was being so attached to Darla, but also moving out from her)
I know this probably gets said a lot, but Darla had a human connection with the ENTIRE family. I have had a few dogs and pets in my life.... but never felt as strong of a connection as with Darla. She was smart, she knew every family member by name. She knew her toys by name and would grab the exact toy that you asked for. She slept with ALL of us. She would make her rounds at night. She would start off in one bed, and at some point throughout the night she would wake up, walk to the next room, and into the next bed etc.
She was at the door excited and readily greeting me EVERY SINGLE TIME that I came home, and recently every time that I came to visit. She just brought so much joy and happiness to everyone.
When she was just 5 years old, we almost lost her. She got very sick out of nowhere. Lost a ton of weight and wouldn't eat. The vet luckily figured out that she had Addison's disease. She almost didn't recover, but she pulled through stronge. She was on numerous medicines for her Addison disease (since its not curable). But she made a mostly full recovery within a few months.
Fast forward to just this past fall/early winter. She started growing a small lump on her leg. It popped up so quick that we actually thought that she had hurt herself on something playing around. She has regular visits to the vet because she goes in for her Percortin shot (for her addisons disease). So everyone at the vet knew her. The small lump that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere, grew very very fast. By the time that we realized that it was something bad, we noticed the worse......... another bump in her neck. At this point in time it was small, almost undetectable under her fur. They did some testing and confirmed that they were cancerous. :(
At this point she had two bumps and both were growing unbelievably quick. The vet told us that she could try and remove them, but the one on her leg was so big (about the size of a softball) that she said the stretched skin around it was starting to die and they would likely have to amputate that leg AND she would also need chemo etc.... and with her pre-existing condition, we could ultimately be putting her through more pain and suffering for no change in the final outcome. So we ultimately decided to let her ride it out and enjoy her last few weeks/months of life. Increasing pain meds when needed. This was back in early February. At the rate that it was progressing, we only expected a few more weeks with her.
She made it much farther than we all thought. The lumps grew bigger and bigger, but she was still a happy dog. But things changed rapidly over the past week. She stopped eating her dog food (we had to feed her rice and hamburger meat), she mostly stopped drinking (just a few small licks here and there). She started having trouble going to the bathroom, she would try and try, and finally when it came.... it was diarrhea that appeared to have blood in it a couple of times. Her gums were now white (Not pink anymore). Her skin on her body was the same (ears, belly, nose...... all white). You could tell that she was in pain, but she would still get excited and greet me when I came over. She still tried to play with her ball and tug rope with us. She tried to go on a walk, but only made it one house over and stopped and just layed down.
My mom decided that it was time. They made an appointment and we all tried to get our calender's and minds ready.
HER LAST DAY:
Yesterday was her last day. And we made sure to make it great for her. We gave her the best last day possible. The weather was great, the sun was shining. We all gave her tons of attention. Took tons of pictures and videos with her. We ordered carryout from a good restaurant and got Darla a big burger with fries. (even though she hadn't been eating her dog food, she had no problem scarfing this down). We got her a vanilla and chocolate frosty from Wendy's and she happily ate BOTH and LOVED THEM. She layed in the sun and ran around and played with us outside. Then when it was finally time..... we took her for her last ride. She drove the whole way to the vets just starring out of the window. Then she was put to sleep with all of us around her, hugging her. She didn't fight it or try and stand or walk or anything. Its almost like she knew what was about to happen. She gave us all kisses and just laid there on her side. It was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I knew it would be hard, but I didn't expect it to hit me THAT hard.
Its so hard because now that she is gone, I keep second guessing everything. Because she was SO playful on her last day. She was actually running around and playing. It was probably her excitement over EVERYONE being there all at once.... but it will no longer let my mind relax. The question keeps eating at me..... "Was it time? Was it too soon? She had so much energy that day". I keep telling myself that it WAS time and that she was only THAT playful because she was excited and trying to please us.... but im just struggling. We are all struggling with it.
She was almost 10 years old. We got her in June of 2006 and she was only 6 weeks old at the time. She survived a strong 5 years with Addison's disease before Cancer got her. She will be so very missed. This picture was taken almost 5 years ago (after she recovered from her Addison scare)
Darla by Nick Eagle, on Flickr
First let me give a little information about our Darla. She is actually a boxer/lab mix. But the boxer side of her personality really stood out and she was actually the reason that me and my wife decided to get a boxer puppy (roxie) a couple of years ago when we moved out of my parents house..... (One of the hardest parts for me about this..... was being so attached to Darla, but also moving out from her)
I know this probably gets said a lot, but Darla had a human connection with the ENTIRE family. I have had a few dogs and pets in my life.... but never felt as strong of a connection as with Darla. She was smart, she knew every family member by name. She knew her toys by name and would grab the exact toy that you asked for. She slept with ALL of us. She would make her rounds at night. She would start off in one bed, and at some point throughout the night she would wake up, walk to the next room, and into the next bed etc.
She was at the door excited and readily greeting me EVERY SINGLE TIME that I came home, and recently every time that I came to visit. She just brought so much joy and happiness to everyone.
When she was just 5 years old, we almost lost her. She got very sick out of nowhere. Lost a ton of weight and wouldn't eat. The vet luckily figured out that she had Addison's disease. She almost didn't recover, but she pulled through stronge. She was on numerous medicines for her Addison disease (since its not curable). But she made a mostly full recovery within a few months.
Fast forward to just this past fall/early winter. She started growing a small lump on her leg. It popped up so quick that we actually thought that she had hurt herself on something playing around. She has regular visits to the vet because she goes in for her Percortin shot (for her addisons disease). So everyone at the vet knew her. The small lump that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere, grew very very fast. By the time that we realized that it was something bad, we noticed the worse......... another bump in her neck. At this point in time it was small, almost undetectable under her fur. They did some testing and confirmed that they were cancerous. :(
At this point she had two bumps and both were growing unbelievably quick. The vet told us that she could try and remove them, but the one on her leg was so big (about the size of a softball) that she said the stretched skin around it was starting to die and they would likely have to amputate that leg AND she would also need chemo etc.... and with her pre-existing condition, we could ultimately be putting her through more pain and suffering for no change in the final outcome. So we ultimately decided to let her ride it out and enjoy her last few weeks/months of life. Increasing pain meds when needed. This was back in early February. At the rate that it was progressing, we only expected a few more weeks with her.
She made it much farther than we all thought. The lumps grew bigger and bigger, but she was still a happy dog. But things changed rapidly over the past week. She stopped eating her dog food (we had to feed her rice and hamburger meat), she mostly stopped drinking (just a few small licks here and there). She started having trouble going to the bathroom, she would try and try, and finally when it came.... it was diarrhea that appeared to have blood in it a couple of times. Her gums were now white (Not pink anymore). Her skin on her body was the same (ears, belly, nose...... all white). You could tell that she was in pain, but she would still get excited and greet me when I came over. She still tried to play with her ball and tug rope with us. She tried to go on a walk, but only made it one house over and stopped and just layed down.
My mom decided that it was time. They made an appointment and we all tried to get our calender's and minds ready.
HER LAST DAY:
Yesterday was her last day. And we made sure to make it great for her. We gave her the best last day possible. The weather was great, the sun was shining. We all gave her tons of attention. Took tons of pictures and videos with her. We ordered carryout from a good restaurant and got Darla a big burger with fries. (even though she hadn't been eating her dog food, she had no problem scarfing this down). We got her a vanilla and chocolate frosty from Wendy's and she happily ate BOTH and LOVED THEM. She layed in the sun and ran around and played with us outside. Then when it was finally time..... we took her for her last ride. She drove the whole way to the vets just starring out of the window. Then she was put to sleep with all of us around her, hugging her. She didn't fight it or try and stand or walk or anything. Its almost like she knew what was about to happen. She gave us all kisses and just laid there on her side. It was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I knew it would be hard, but I didn't expect it to hit me THAT hard.
Its so hard because now that she is gone, I keep second guessing everything. Because she was SO playful on her last day. She was actually running around and playing. It was probably her excitement over EVERYONE being there all at once.... but it will no longer let my mind relax. The question keeps eating at me..... "Was it time? Was it too soon? She had so much energy that day". I keep telling myself that it WAS time and that she was only THAT playful because she was excited and trying to please us.... but im just struggling. We are all struggling with it.
She was almost 10 years old. We got her in June of 2006 and she was only 6 weeks old at the time. She survived a strong 5 years with Addison's disease before Cancer got her. She will be so very missed. This picture was taken almost 5 years ago (after she recovered from her Addison scare)
Darla by Nick Eagle, on Flickr
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