[Dailydrool] Goodbye Freckles

[Angelika Hastings]

I am putting this through for Kathy as it got scrubbed the first time- Angelika
 
 
From: kcollins at crubber.com
To: dailydrool at lists.dailydrool.org
Subject: Goodbye Freckles
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:55:43 -0500





It is with a very heavy heart I must tell everyone we had to say Goodbye to Freckles Monday.
 
I’m a lurker but loyal reader. Freckles is the reason I found the drool, almost 14 years ago. I used to post way back then, but slowly stopped to just sit on the sidelines and “watch” by reading. I’m so thankful to this list as it has helped me in so many ways. How comforting it is to know your dog is a normal basset when it pulls some of the pranks our dogs put us through! I’ve gained so much knowledge for health issues, my vet actually considers my thoughts and we confer together. I’ve laughed so hard I’ve cried.
Now…I just cry.
I so wanted her to make her 14th birthday March 2nd. It just wasn’t meant to be. We were surprised when she made it through last winter and knew we were on borrowed time. We treasured every day we were blessed with. Freckles had a nasty bout of stomach “something” over the July 4th weekend. Personally, I believe it was pancreatitis. She became even less interested in eating and we battled diarrhea off and on all the time. Her teeth were really bad, but neither the vet nor I wanted to put her under for a cleaning. I’d stopped removing the lumps and bumps several years ago. She suffered so on the last surgery, we promised her no more. So the fatty tumors grew. She had those bothersome cauliflower warts that would bleed now and then. You had to be very careful if you dared kiss her on the muzzle because you never knew if she’d try to take your face off or not. She told us what to do constantly and demanded immediate response. She was old, she was cantankerous, she was stinky and I loved her with all my heart. She helped my son through terrible depression, and he said she was the reason he was still here. When I learned that, I knew I owed that dog everything I could possibly give her so I took care of her better than anyone or anything I’ve ever cared for in my life.
Freckles was losing weight bad so we did a blood test a couple months ago. Nothing glaring showed, but her albumin was a little elevated as well as her gobulin (sp?) protein. She went from her prime weight of 62# to 50# and was just skin and bones. She slept all the time. Her tail wagged from a hanging position. My husband and son tried to talk to me about what they saw, what I just couldn’t bring myself to see yet. 
She didn’t eat well last week, so I gave her a prednisone to boost her appetite. It worked for a couple days (how silly and thrilled I was when she ate breakfast two days in a row!). But then she went back to her usual self. Saturday she seemed “off”.  Sunday she didn’t eat or drink. Sunday night she started coughing more than her usual.  She brought up more phlegm than I’d ever seen in my life. The poor thing struggled to breath!  Off to the emergency vet we went. We were there until 4:30 in the morning.
Since she had to be lightly sedated for x rays, she slept until noon. They told me they thought it was pneumonia but that the radiologist thought there was a mass in the lung..then showed me the xray with the mass and several others further up on the lung. I was told they still thought her issues were pneumonia and were treating her as such. Then my dear vet called Monday morning as soon as he heard. It wasn’t pneumonia. He read me the radiologist’s report. He felt it was cancer that started elsewhere but had spread to the lung. I didn’t want to put her through a biopsy. He offered to treat her symptoms to buy some time. 
To me, treating the symptoms meant making sure she didn’t cough. So I thought she’d get pneumonia then, or her poor heart would need to work so much harder to get rid of that extra fluid! My family discussed our options but thought the only  option was to make sure she didn’t suffer any longer. I thank God my husband was home to do this with me. I thank God he understands loving a pet as much as a human family member. I lost my father 4 years ago and I swear this loss hurts just as bad. I so hope she understands we did this for her.
 
As my heart breaks, hug your hound, read the drool. Enjoy the family we have here. Embrace what makes our bassets so much more unique than just their stature. And if you would, please make a wish, say a prayer, whatever it is that you believe; that my dear friend finds her way and that my family’s hearts heal eventually. She went hearing the words “I love you Freckles” over and over with loving hands petting her. I hope I’m so lucky when my time comes.
 
Kathy 		 	   		  
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