We had to have Buddy “transitioned” to the next world this morning at Cuyamaca Vet. He had a Massive Tumor on his spleen, and it was unclear whether or not it had metastasized. We were looking at a lot of expensive procedures and surgery which Buddy might not survive long after they were completed. Instead of prolonging his situation we made the most difficult decision of letting him go. Dr. McMahan (sp?) was the attending physician and gave us a lot of time to say good bye to him, and performed the final procedure.
Buddy had been fading/failing for a while. We thought it might just be extreme age (13-16 yrs) the hard life he lead before coming to us, and his continual problem with his weight.
He was his usual self when we left town Saturday to celebrate or wedding anniversary, and left him in the hands of our regular dog sitter, who also watches our house. Sunday, as we were getting ready to come back he started to turn…but we thought from the description over the phone he was just exhibiting his usual separation anxiety…until he had problems again after we returned (I stayed up 99% of Sunday night with him, getting him to calm down and finally sleep) and then got a panic’d call from my wife while I was at work that he was having more problems, at which point she called Cuyamaca and the earliest they could see us was this morning. It seemed bad, but it wasn’t an emergency situation.
We made last night one of the best nights focused on Buddy ever. A Celebration of life, and his life with us: giving him all of his favorite treats and a special dinner…suspecting the worst but hoping for the best….and no reason why he shouldn’t have one last super fun night, even if it wasn’t his last one.
But it was…so we glad we did.
We will be getting his ashes back some time in the next two weeks, after which we will have a private ceremony for him.
Buddy had lots of friends, who will miss him almost as much as we will. Over the last year it had become harder and harder for him to walk more than 10-30 feet at time, so for any outing we had a re-fitted baby stroller we called his “Wheelie” and would take him down for walks in Balboa Park, La Jolla Cove, Chollas Lake Park, Normal Heights, etc….his last big outing being the Adams Avenue Roots festival where he became the “Darling” of all the “Young Hotties”….who would have thought that a 3 legged Pug with bad breath, a “gas problem”, and sounded like he was snoring just sitting there would stop Extremely Hot Looking women in their tracks so that they could pet him and have their picture taken with him.
Everywhere Buddy went, he made people smile. And Laugh…with him.
We were lucky to have Buddy in our lives, as he came into our lives shortly after my Father passed away after a two year battle with cancer. Even my too smart for her own good and snooty Norwegian Forest Cat came to love Buddy, more so in the last year…and has actually been sitting with him much of the last week, and lay down next to him last night, up against him….which she has never done before. She is fiercely independent, and doesn’t like to sit on people laps, even mine! But she was up against him last night for a time. She knew something was up with him before anyone else, and she knows something is very wrong this time that we didn’t bring him home from the vet.
They had an interesting relationship over the last couple of years, he would try to steal her crunchies out of her bowl when no one was looking, and she would drink from his BIG water dish.
They were something of a reverse “Ren & Stimpy”, with her being the Evil Genius and He being the not too bright but BIG HEARTED goof ball.
One final word: After Buddy was gone from this world and we spent the final minutes sending our last good-byes after him, as we exited thru the Lobby we found a woman holding a Pug in her lap, and next to her sat her sun, with a plastic pet carrier full of Pug Puppies…we learned moments later that the Mama was a rescue Pug who had delivered at the Shelter, and her Babies were just 3 weeks old.
Fate?
