Lizzie

We bid a sad farewell to Lizzie today.  ("What shall we do for Christmas?"  "I dunno...how about let's kill the dog....")

Fortunately she went quickly and if we had waited 30 more minutes before going to the vet, she would have died at home.  Last night she vomited several times, then her legs wouldn't hold her and she kept collapsing when she tried to walk.  It was 10 pm so I waited until morning before calling the vet.  They gave me an 11:15 appoinment and by the time it came time to take her, she couldn't walk at all.

They took us right into an exam room and we waited for the doctor to come.  I took what I feared would be Lizzie's last photo.

 

And it was.  The vet said it felt like she had a mass in her stomach.  `The vet took her back to check a few things and said that yes, it was a mass and talked about the extensive things that could be done.  But she was a ~13 year old dog and already very, very sick and I had known from when we took her to the car that it would probably be a one-way trip for her.

Yesterday she acted normal, but when we got home from the show last night, though she met us at the door, as she always did, she hung back and didn't go into the kitchen for a treat.  I thought she was feeling embarrassed because she had pooped on the floor (the back door was closed and it was her only option) but then I saw the big puddle of vomit, which we cleaned up (this morning I found two more).

She had lost a lot of weight, but seemed otherwise happy until last night, so at least she didn't suffer long.  We agreed it was time to euthanize her, but she took care of that for us.  Before the doctor could get the meds together, Lizzie was gone.

We said our goodbyes and there were tears.  But she has been a wonderful dog.  She came here about 10-11 years ago as a foster named Happy, but I knew immediately that I wanted to adopt her, so we kept her.  In her early days, it was like she was built on springs because she jumped at everything, so I renamed her Leaping Lizzie.  She used to sit at the back of the couch looking out the front window and leap at anything that dared threaten us by walking past the house.

Many people walked past just to watch Lizzie's display.

 

The older she got, the less she leaped, but she still always jumped and jumped and jumped on me when I was fixing her a meal.  I won't miss that.  Walt loved watching her "pre-wash" the dishes when he loaded them in the dishwasher.

She accepted Polly as a resident of the house but other than running outside to bark together, they never really played, though Polly seems confused  that we left with Lizzie and came back without her.

She was a sweet, loving dog and I will miss her.  But probably not think about replacing her!  For now we are a one-dog family.