Sidney

I believe the last post I wrote about Sidney was an ad for a free dog.

That dog.

I LOVE that dog.

But she was the source of many arguments in our home.

I won't get into that now, because well, it doesn't matter.
What matters is that we noticed Sidney didn't look too well when she was pregnant with her first {and last}litter.

But, before we could take her to the vet, she gave birth to 7 beautiful lab puppies.

Because we fell on hard times, it wasn't feesible for us to take her to the vet at that time.
We treated her for worms, and she started to look and act better.

The last week and a half, though, she started to look and act sick again.  I had a feeling this time that it had to be heartworms. Or atleast something more than just regular worms.

She needed a vet, NOW.

Jackie took her to our vet Monday morning. Our intentions were to get her healthy again and then get her spayed.
We knew she, nor we, would be able to handle another litter of puppies.
But, when Jackie came back home 2 hours later WITH Sidney, I knew it was bad news.
He told me the vet said the heartworms were EVERYWHERE.
That it was only a matter of time before her kidneys failed and she would die.

He gave us some options.  To treat her heartworms {which would likely kill her} to give her dialysis, {for dogs!? which would only prolong her life by a year or so, but she would still be suffering}to put her down, or to take her home, do nothing and watch her suffer and die. 

There was only really one option.  We were not willing to watch her suffer any longer.

We explained to Charlotte that Sidney was really sick and she wasn't going to be with us any longer.

That was rough. I think she understood as much as a 3 year old could.

I realized as I sat on the couch, crying my eyes out, that I never got a picture of Audrey with Sidney.

So, I asked Charlotte if she wanted to go out on the porch with Audrey and take a picture with Sidney to remember her by. She RAN and grabbed her shoes!

 

 

 

It was so sweet. But, so sad!

We all hugged her and kissed her.  Told her we loved her and that we would miss her terribly.

And, as Jackie helped her into the jeep, I walked over and gave her one last kiss and said good-bye.

It sucked. Monday sucked.

 

 

This post was long enough without me telling you all about her HOUDINI tricks, or her steel stomach. I will get into that on another post.

Jackie told me once he got home, that he saw her try to go to the bathroom outside at the vet, and she couldn't.  So, he KNEW it had already gotten to her kidneys. She could have died anyday this week.

She was sweet. Very loving. Never aggressive. She was aggravating sometimes. {but what dog isn't at some point!?}

But mainly, she was a great dog.