In January Neal came home from his deployment. He unloaded his bags while I went into the house to let the dogs out. I wish I had my camera ready for when Sadie saw Neal. She had been really sick for about three weeks. She rounded the corner after coming down the stairs and saw a man standing in the dark kitchen. She slowed down as she kept her eyes on him. Suddenly she recognized Neal and started swinging her short tail and running to him. Five days later we made the hard choice to put her down. Sadie was a very sweet dog. I just couldn't bare stretching her illness out. She had stopped eating days earlier. When we took her to the vet they tried to get a stool sample, but couldn't because of her lack of food. She had fluid in her chest (not lungs) and abdomen. Her liver was enlarged. The vet said it could be heart problems, but they couldn't find anything wrong with her heart. When I told her if it was something deadly that we could only stretch out not heal that I wanted to put her down the vet opened up. First let me say this... If Sadie had something like high blood pressure, we would be willing to give her medicine for the rest of her life. However, if it was something like cancer that treatment may only stretch out her life making it a painful, drugged up existence, we wouldn't proceed. The vet said what I feared, liver cancer. We said our goodbyes and tearfully left Sadie behind. Once she was put down the vet did an autopsy (on her dime) and confirmed it was liver cancer. She said we made the right choice. She was such a faithful dog to turn our backs on her. However, I think we did what was in her best interest.
When I would drop Kaitlyn Joy off at school Sadie liked to lay in her car seat.
On March 1st we adopted another dog. He was the hairiest small dog they had, but it was all mats, dirt, and sticker burs. Without so much as a bath, he was neutered the day before we adopted him. Why did we get a male? Neal mentioned a couple different times how he was outnumbered so I adopted a male dog. Big mistake! His temperament is SOOOOOOO different then Maggie's. He likes to play fetch until your arm wants to fall off. He's aggressive. Ugh... this one has almost gotten him evicted several times. He has taken Barbies out of the toy box and chewed off their arms and legs. Lovely. Over all he seems to missing some brain cells. I'm thinking his last owners must have smoked crack around him because he isn't quite right.
