[Dailydrool] Nellie to the Bridge :(

[froggie]

Nellie Marie
Jan(?) 1995 - July 16, 2008

After a bloat scare 2 1/2 weeks ago, we took Nellie on vacation with us--and ended up taking her home to Missouri, just like I did for Rusty Paws back in 2004 when I brought him home to Texas.  We drove out to the home where she'd first been found--and had her one and only litter of puppies. 

Tonight an hour after her dinner, her belly bloated up again, so I shoved in the Gas-X expecting it to go down fairly quickly like it did nearly 3 weeks ago.  It didn't.  I had to go be the director of our vacation bible school, but I came home twice to check on her.  She didn't look good, but she wasn't pacing, drooling, vomiting, etc...  I put my head to her belly and heard plenty of gurgling.  When we arrived home for the night, she was on the floor in the kitchen and she thumped her tail when she heard my voice.  I called the after-hours vet number and they met me at the clinic.  They x-rayed her and found the stomach to be full of air and something wrong with her spleen (which was huge.)  She was not a candidate for surgery, so they sedated her to put in a gastric tube to relieve her of the air but it wouldn't go in.  Sadly, at 10:05 PM I had to send my baby girl--the only girl, feline or canine I have ever had on my own--to the Bridge.  I know she can see again, her ear infection is gone, and she is with her Sammy, Rusty Paws, Barney, Mr. Whiskers, Butchie and Bert.  But I am still so sad.

Last night while I was sitting in the living room reading the paper, I thought I saw our solid white old man foster Sapper standing by the couch.  I didn't think  much of it, until I realized Sapper was fast asleep on the big brown dog bed by the window.  It could only have been Rusty Paws, coming to get my Nellie Marie.


 We had been given Nellie and her bonded mate Sammy on November 7, 1995.  Best guess was she was a year old and Sammy was 2. Joshua was 7 weeks old.  She was very naughty, taking his toys out to the yard all the time.  She was our Alpha female, making sure even yesterday at dinner that nobody came near her when she was eating her dinner.  I never wanted my baby girl to suffer, so I had to let her go.  I am so sad.  Because Bridget had a friend spending the night, I couldn't take all of the kids with me to the vet.  We took their picture with our old girl and they said goodbye.  I had Nicholas with me, and he kissed baby girl on the snout after her heart stopped beating.

They won't cremate her until tomorrow afternoon, so they said I could bring over the plaster mold over in the morning and make her footprint.

Susan and the Hoptown  Bassets + 1 + 7 
 Murphy, Jeremiah, Twinkie, Walter, Rusty Paws (ATB),Sammy (ATB), Barney Boy (ATB), Nellie (ATB) &  Bert(ATB), Bianca(ATB),

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