My best friend is gone. He died this afternoon, while Mom and I were out running errends. He had seemd ... normal yesterday almost, chasing the rabbit that comes in the yard and doing his little happy dance and barking when it was time for our walk. This morning he was OK, but he seemed to be taking things a little slow.
We took him to the vet's and she did an autopsy. We hadn't been home very long when she called with the report. He'd had a large tumor on his liver, and there were smaller tumors inside the liver. The large one had ruptured, filling his stomach area with blood. She said it happened very quickly and would have been painless. I had noticed lately, I can't say exactly when, then when he lay on his side, his side seemed to have a bit of a bulge. But I know I shouldn't blame myself. He seemed healthy ever since about a year and a half ago, when he first showed signs of liver problems. He had been in for two yearly checkups since then, and the vet never suspected anything either. I can't blame her. He seemed healthy, and she would really have no reason to suspect. She said that even if she had opened him up on Friday when I took him, there woldn't have been anything she could have done.
Nipper will be cremated, and I'll pick up his ashes later in the week. I'm not sure what I'll do with them. Probably, eventually, I'll spread them here, along the creek he loved to explore. When I first got him, and we lived in small apartments, I always told him one day I'd have a house with a big yard that he could enjoy. I'm glad I was able to do that.
You'll probably have to excuse me over the next several days, as my posting will probably be all about him -- stories I've probably told before and photos you've seen, but he was my best friend for almost 13 years, and it will take some time to adjust to life without him.
1 comment:
I'm so sorry. He was a good dog and will be missed. -bro
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