Goodbye To My Dog

Friday, December 17, we came home from a Michale W. Smith concert and found Kassie, our dog curled up on her bed by the dryer looking at us, but she didn't come to us as ususal.

Now we realized that she was certainly slowing down over the past year and more notably since we moved to our new home. But just a few days before, she was running up our driveway and that morning, when we let her outside, other than a little typical morning stiffness, she seemed okay. However, when Randy came home, she was walking very slow and lopsided as she headed to her bed.

So when we came home from the concert, we noticed Kassie had vomited. We tried to get her to move off of her bed so we could clean it and she wouldn't move. So I went and got the leash and asked her if she wanted to go for a walk....she slowly rose up off the bed and immediately fell - spread eagle on the floor.

We knew something drastic was wrong with her so we rushed her to the clinic. She had no feeling, no motor control over most of her body, but she was very much alert and responded to touch as we patted and rubbed her head. The doctor examined her and checked her gums inside her mouth...it was very grave news. He said he could try to stablize her over the night and then do blood work and other tests to try to determine what was happening, but given her age and the severity of her condition, she would most likely not recover. He suggested that perhaps she had a tumor that had errupted. He gently, but strongly suggested we let her go.

Frankie came home and saw that Kassie was gone and we weren't home so he called. He came and we all said our goodbyes. The suddeness of it was a shock and we were so saddened. She was such a good dog. I miss her so much already.

What a reminder...that really, death walks among us. We never knew Kassie had a tumor growing inside her.
I could go on and on about how wonderful a friend she was...a very significant part of the family. I just can't right now because it's hard to type with blurry eyes. My dear sweet doggy will be so terribly missed.