RIP Odie

 

 

It's with great sadness that I need to report that my dog Odie, died this past week. He had been suffering from seizures for only a couple of weeks. I first found him shaking on the couch one day and I had no idea what was happening to him. I then found him laying in the ditch next to the crawlspace door, panting and not able to move. After a few scans, we determined it was a brain tumor, but nothing out of the ordinary for a dog his age. The prognosis was 6-9 months originally. We got him stabilized with meds and things were fine for a week. My boys and I were on vacation when it happened, with the dog sitter frantically calling me after a long night of trying to keep him calm through another round of seizures. Since she is elderly, she wasn't able to lift him, and it was on Wednesday, so everyone she knew on her street were off to work. It was only after my son was able to call his Mom that she was able to finally get help. Kudos to my ex wife for traveling the 40+ miles to help out lifting the dog into the car for the trip to the vet.

I suppose the short story version is that he was just too far gone when he arrived and they recommended him to be put down. I got the call, and made the call nobody wants to do, while I was 1000 miles away. He was with "Grantie", who always looked after him while I was away on work trips and vacation. She spoke to him and kept him calm during his final minutes. While the boys knew he was at the vet, because I broke down after I got the news of the new seizures, I didn't have the heart to tell them later when their dog just died while trying to enjoy their vacation.

My youngest was excited to get home because he wanted to see Odie at the vet. It broke my heart to hear him say that, and the poker face I am known for was breaking down each mile closer to home. Once we got home, we had the discussion and it was painful, but necessary. We cried it out, hugged it out and hopefully over time the pain will lessen. We plan to make a nice memorial for him with a collage of pictures and a story or poem about him to include in it. They lost a puppy 2 years ago from some contaminated food, and this had been on my mind since then, since Odie was 13. I myself am getting a tattoo to memorialize him in my own way.

Rest in peace Odie, you were a very good boy and I will miss you.