We dog sat for a couple of years while our kids lived in an apartment where no dogs were allowed. When they moved to a house we give the dog back promising grand kids to get a dog after our summer vacation. Twinkle had traveled with us to Canada, Alaska and across the U.S. on several occasions.
So 2 weeks before being called to VA to work we took to the grand kids to the local animal shelter to pick out a dog. We thought we’d get one before the new flooring went in.
Walking up and down the rows of dogs we chose the ones who didn’t jump up on the fence, we didn’t want a jumper.
The 1st dog had been surrendered by her owner, loved to play fetch and seemed to want to be with us. The 2nd was 7 years old and mostly wanted to lay around and be petted. She was really pretty with a fuller coat but was also a jumper. The 3rd dog just ran around, didn’t let us pet her, but jumped on us when she did come around. I did feel sorry for this dog, she was also given up by her owners where she was use to sleeping in a bed and living indoors.
We went around the pound again but still felt like the 1st dog would work. Her prior owners had a small child so this one would be fine with Zaya, Lucian and Sequoia. We filled out all of the paperwork and brought her home.
1st thing to do is pee in the living room and then do a poo in the office. Great start! But we figured that she was scarred and nervous so we cleaned up the mess and went on.
Leia was a great dog, she followed the little grandkids everywhere, and they couldn’t turn without her being right beside them. She was a big as our little 3 year old but would let Zaya pull her around by the collar just waiting for new commands. And she loved her toys especially her ball. She learned to play ball by herself in the kitchen even.
We did find that Leia would not like to be alone, and she especially wanted to be with her new family. When we went away for an entire day we came home to the door trim and jam completely chewed off. We’d left toys, her bed and blanket, food and water out for her but instead she tore off the door trim. Since she’d also started going to the bathroom again in the house we packed her and took her back to the pound. We didn’t take her in, only told the staff what she had done. They put us in touch with a personal trainer who then determined that she had separation anxiety and how to work with it.
We hadn’t quite started working on her anxiety, couldn’t bear to put her in her crate yet, and were not going anywhere for any length of time anyway. But we would leave her in the yard for an hour or so just to get used to being separated a little.
We’d gone to the gym and before we left we couldn’t find her. We just figured she was on the side of the house getting into something but were not worried. When we returned home she was waiting for us, glad for our return. Then a couple of hours later she started having twitching. The twitches became jerks and I screamed for Dale. We found a hospital and rushed her there but she was in full convulsions by the time we arrived. I couldn’t bear to watch.
The doctor asked if we had snail bait and I answered no, but then he asked again and I thought about it; yes, I did think maybe we had some but didn’t know where it was. My brain was reeling; snail bait, those are just little pellets, but I didn’t know where it was either. No matter, she had gotten into snail bait most likely and needed transfusions now- $1,000 now. Maybe she would live but it would cost lots more and be more days before we would know anything.
We had to make the split decision to have her put to sleep. But what if that was a bad decision? We had no way to determine that on the spot: her chances of living and would she be the same dog.
We both cried as they gave Leia her shot, petting her and telling her how good she had been, how sorry we were for not looking out for her.
We both miss Leia and still feel so bad for letting her down. She trusted us to make sure she was safe but we didn’t. It will take a little more time before we get over this.
No comments:
Post a Comment