[Dailydrool] At the Bridge

[LaRock Hounds]

Hi All,
I haven't posted in about 6 months. I find myself on facebook a lot these
days. I'm not sure how many of you will remember me (us). I just wanted to
report in that Mazzie went to the bridge on 11/29/11 which was 2 days ago
now. A little about Mazzie--Mazzie joined our family on September 2, 2005
when we adopted her at the Humane Society to give Maggie some
companionship. She came with the name "Daisy," but immediately responded to
her name change. Once bringing her home, during introductions our neighbor
noticed that Mazzie's front leg was "deformed" to say the least. Being
oblivious we didn't even notice as we were just loving her for who she was.
I come from a family with members having TBI's and developmental
disabilities and we have always taught our kids to look on the inside. That
is what we did with Mazzie. Over the years, Mazzie's medical issues
started. We first discovered that she was very afraid of men with black
hair. She would back up, pee, and growl. I went back to the Humane Society
and was told that she was first a stray and that when the owner was tracked
down her original owner was hispanic and they believed she had been abused
by him. Mazzie started to outgrow that with love. Mazzie loved to play
ball, frisbee, and rope toys in the beginning. In 2006, Mazzie started
having urinary issues. I took her to the vet and discovered she had fusion
in her spine. As the years went by, the fusion got worse, even though we
did not allow her to jump or go to the second story of the house. The vet
was surprised that she could run let alone walk. He claimed Mazzie was not
in pain. We tried the gammet of medications, both herbal and medicinal from
the vet. Mazzie started to get snippy. She bit at my daughter once who was
almost a teenager which I witnessed, she tried to bite me, and then she
nipped at my cousin's 2 year old when he accidentally stepped on her. She
began to get grumpy with the doxies we had acquired by then too. She was
taken to the vet and placed on prozac. It helped for awhile. Mazzie was
tested for bladder cancer a few January's ago. It was allegedly negative.
Mazzie's stance in her walking, bathroom habits, and trot got worse. She
was taken back to the vet for crabbiness and put on a higher dose of
prozac. She started to thin out, even though she was eating. This past
Friday, she urinated blood. All vets were closed and we were over 2 hours
from an emergency vet. We watched her closely and it only happened once.
Saturday we came back home. On Sunday, Mazzie was lazy we thought and layed
around. She decided to not eat all day. Then we talked that no one had seen
her drink. We tried different things to entice her appetite. I had decided
to take her to the vet on Monday morning. On Monday morning, we were
shocked to discover that Mazzie was walking as if she was drunk. I called
the vet and went right down when they opened. The vet did a urinalysis and
said Mazzie's cystitis was back for her bladder, but more was going on.
When he pushed by her neck and brain, he felt something move that should
not have. When he pushed on this, her legs went right out from under her.
When he started feeling around, she was crying out in pain. She was
shivering in pain too. The vet offered an x ray for surgery, but no
guarantees, especially in a dog with fusion L1 to sacrum already. The vet
offered euthanasia. I asked for an alternative. He gave her an injection
and stated that if it was going to work that we should see a vast
improvement by afternoon. I took her home to rest and went to work. I
called my kids when they got home from school (high school and jr high)
only to discover that Mazzie walked one step outside and fell down two. Her
front deformed leg was also shaking and looked like it was going to give
out. I stopped by on my way home from work and talked about euthanasia. We
talked as a family that night as Mazzie stared off, shaking, and not
responding to our calls to her name. The next morning we took her to the
vet to release her from the pain. We all kissed her goodbye and told her we
loved her. I told her to rest and be pain free. As the vet gave her
injection, I swear I felt her spirit leave her body. We decided to travel 2
hours to my mom's property where Mazzie loved to run free and walk to the
river with us. My brother dug a grave and even made up a cross with a big
"M" on it for her. Thank god for him as my husband was in no shape. I
helped to fill in her grave. We then planted tulip bulbs in the color
purple to come up in the spring. Mazzie was buried with her blanket and her
favorite rope toy from back when she used to play. Fly free to the bridge
Mazzie. As we looked at the pictures last night we saw that Mazzie had lost
a lot of weight in the last year and had gotten bony with her face sinking
in. Perhaps she did have cancer or a brain tumor. We will never know. She
is free from pain is what is important.  Please hug your hounds close. I
never though Mazzie, ate age 8, would go before Maggie who is now age 12.
Please, let it be years before we go through this again. My heart is broken
and must mend itself. Drool to you and yours.

-- 
DRool to all in need,
Dee,
Maggie, Mazzie (ATB), Oliver, Cooper, Harvey, and Izzy (adopted in August)
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