Sunday, June 3, 2012

Pabst

So this week we had to say goodbye to a member of our family. Pabst, Pabsty, or Bubba as he was often called was usually in the background of our family. When I think back on it, that's probably because he really was such a DARN good dog. He never demanded tons of attention, and could by no means be called a high maintenance dog. He loved and protected all three of my beautiful girls as though they were his. He would always be at the door wagging his tail and he was the best cuddler during naps on the sofa. He did have the moments I couldn't stand him of course but that was because he rolled in a dead animal or poop which he did often but that's what he was made to do?!?! I hated having to cut his hair and for some reason whenever he puked it was always the brightest orange color that always stained, but those things aside he was a great dog. Never did he bite Gweny when she would force herself in on his feedings handing him one piece at a time. Or when Hadley wanted to play ball he would drop it for her eventually, when he was ready.  He loved to bring me dead birds or mice and was always up for a good squirrel chase. He never was good at taking walks, just running round like a madman. 
 He was  a member of our family for 6 years...through thick and thin, more babies, moves, and countless road trips. He really was a best friend.  I have a lot of pictures of him throughout the blog over the past four years but having the three days to say goodbye to him this week I got some more.

Enjoy.







 
He had stopped eating about four weeks before Parker joined our family and we just assumed it was stress, but eight weeks after she was here he still wasn't eating and had become skin and bones. We were giving him table scraps regularly but dog food just didn't do it for him. So we sent him to Mark's sister's house for some doggy therapy and TLC (she has two dogs that Pabst loves and no kiddos?!!). She got him back on doggy food regularly but he still wasn't necessarily gaining any of this weight back. Then she thought he got kennel cough which would have made sense because he wasn't vaccinated for it (later we learned he wasn't able to breath well because of the fluid and mass). So she kept him a little big longer to help him recover fully. He came back to us Monday, on Memorial Day. I noticed he was struggling to breath and his belly was huge. He looked like a pot belly pig. So Mark and I took him to the vet on Tuesday to learn that he was in congestive heart failure. Most likely due to a mass somewhere. She was recommending hospitalization then exploratory surgery to discover the underlying cause once the CHF was under control. We were up into the thousands just to figure out what was wrong which was most likely a mass or cancer.  He was suffering that much we knew, and we just weren't ready to say goodbye. So they drained his abdomen and chest (about 60 cc's total) gave him some heavy drugs (I was giving 4 in the am, 2 in the afternoon, and 4 at night) and we took him home with the plans to bring him back shortly to end his suffering. On the chest drain the drainage was blood tinged which led her to believe a mass in his chest cavity somewhere. Pabst ate like royalty this week with more bacon and ham then he could have ever dreamed of. I attempted to take him on walks and play ball but he just didn't have the energy. My girlfriend Kelly stopped by Tuesday night to say her goodbyes and Mark's sister on Wednesday. Then she and I took him in on Thursday to "be drove to doggy heaven by the vet so that he would feel better."


I had a dream on Friday night of Pabst in a huge field. Running and running, so I fully believe he is happy and pain free :)

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