[Dailydrool] My sad day 11-6-2015

[Kenneth Miller via Dailydrool]

Healing drool to all in need. I rarely post, work is just too much to write often, but I am truly amazed at the wonderful folks who populate the list. But I know you all can relate to what we are going through now.

I'm sorry but this is going to be overlong.

Some of you might remember my posting about my boy Bosley. Bosley is 11, we adopted him from an owner surrender just 15 days after we got married in September 2006, he was two. His first owner was an older lady who he dearly loved and was loved, however, she passed away suddenly, and her sister took him in. She already had a dog, and we think Bosley was terrorized by him, in addition to him being very scared of men, short of me. He was very aggressive when we got him to other dogs, other men. When we went to pick him up, they did not even have a collar and leash. He just followed us out to the car and climbed right in, never showed any hesitation in going.

Bosley has been nicely taken care of since we got him. He initially spent some of his day with my parents, but they were both older, and he was protective of my mother, lightly biting my father (87) and my mother. Their skin was so thin and both bled easily. In November 2009, my father passed away. His last days were at home, as he lay in the bed, a day before he passed, Bosley went to the bed, slowly raised up, gently sniffed, then quietly dropped back to the floor and did not go back in the room again.

In the spring of 2010, Bosley developed an ear infection in his left ear, and as some of you may recall, we tried virtually everything to get rid of it. It was pseudomonas. And nothing, but nothing stopped it. We tried BNT numerous times. Antibiotics did nothing. He still has the infection to this day.

We took him to the vet every 6 weeks or so to be put under and have the BNT therapy. It would help, but nothing could stop it. We changed his food to no grain, eliminated all those possibilities, nothing. He was at the vet so much they told us that they named a wing after him.

Bosley continued to put up with it and was still pleasant and happy. My mother passed away in May 2013 and we moved into the house, Bosley seemed to take it all in stride, but he'd spent his days here for some time, so it was not totally new to him. The weeks my mother was sick, I stayed at the house to keep it safe, and about 10 days after she passed away, we moved Beth and Bosley in.

He was content here, happy and comfortable. Then last winter he began to have eye issues, culminating with losing sight in his left eye at the beginning of March and doing the drop routine twice a day. I never really thought a year ago he'd let me do the drops, he just was not cooperative with that, but I got sliced turkey and a drop and small chunk of turkey made that work easily.

We have the vet check the eye pressure frequently, and both eyes have been excellent. He will not let anyone else do his drops but me.

In the last few weeks however something else is happening. Bosley is becoming even more aggressive than before. Many times he was growling and snapping at me for no reason. I've been talking to him, he just goes off. Even if I have attempted to pet him.

A few nights ago, I was sitting in the recliner with my feet up a bit and he was standing next to my left foot. I did nothing, said nothing, and he just goes off and clamps down on my foot. I don't know what he was thinking or imagined what he saw.

I had talked with our vet a few weeks ago and asked her about this, she agreed that he had become a lot more snarky with them in the past few months.

It used to be that when we'd have his ears cleaned and treated, he'd not scratch for a few weeks, now, it is the same day. And when he scratches, he screams out in pain. The last time at the vet, she said his ear was nowhere near as bad as it has been. At times it goes on for 10 or more minutes

Now, he will barely let me do his drops without growling and snapping. He is scaring my wife, and he has begun to scare me. This is not at all the way it has been. It is almost like he is regressing back to when he was abused. We cannot have anyone in the house for fear of him attacking.

I guess he is trying to tell me it is time for me to take the torment away. I don't know what else to do. I've been patient, and done everything I can think of.

We are taking him to our vet this afternoon, and made arrangements for his cremation and will probably get him back on Sunday. Yesterday evening, and today, he has been a perfect gentlehound, but I know something worse is coming. He is showing all the signs of dementia, and we know blindness is right around the corner. He is obviously in pain, but we don't know exactly what.

What makes this hurt even more is my Daily Drool Calendar for 2016 arrived yesterday, if you want to see the boy, his date is September 17th of both 2015 and 2016.

So, my boy is headed for the rainbow bridge, I hope he makes loads of friends there and enjoys the buffet. He loves most food, so he will not be hard to please.

Fly free my sweet boy, go be painfree and young again. I hope you will arrive safely, we'll be there to join you and my previous boy Edsel in time. 

Ken and Beth with Bosley
with Edsel ATB 2002