Last night we lost Lola. She would’ve been 15 had she made it to next month. That’s really old for a dog, and I kept telling myself I was prepared. I wasn’t prepared.
She got pretty sick last week and spent about 48 hours at an emergency vet hospital. If you want the whole horrible story, PartPurple set up a GoFundMe page that goes into ALL the details. Maybe I’ll copy what she wrote down at some point to save it but I don’t have it in me right now.
Anyway she came home last Friday, and Friday and Saturday were tough. Sunday she was a bit better, better still on Monday, and Tuesday she had a great day, being her old smiling happy self. She saw a lot of her friends and got attention from so many people in the complex that know her. I remember thinking “Thanks goodness she is back to normal.”
Wednesday started normally, then she started really hyperventilating. Then she fell and couldn’t get up. We scooped her up and rushed her back to the hospital where they found she had an extremely high fever, to the point where they starting bathing her in cool water to try to bring it down. We took her to veg.com which I have nothing but praise for. They do most of their work out in the open so the whole time they were working on her, PartPurple and I were giving her pets and talking to her and even helping to give her oxygen.
Eventually they put her in in oxygen tank (like a big aquarium where they can oxygenate the air and temperature control things…rather than try to put an oxygen mask on a dog) and an in-depth ultrasound was scheduled for this morning. We left her in the care of the doctors and nurses, and came home; by then it was 5:30 PM or so. At about 10:30 the vet called and told us, basically, that she wasn’t going to make it. So we rushed back over and said our goodbyes. She was pretty out of it and I’m not sure if she knew we were there. Then she went peacefully with a bit of chemical assistance.
And now we have no dog. No morale officer. She was in many ways my best friend, and in some ways I have never loved an entity as much as I loved her. She was my companion pretty much 24/7 since I started working from home 12 years ago. She was the kind of dog that when you moved, she’d come move to just to be near you. She was always with us. In the nearly 15 years of her life I think we boarded her twice to go somewhere. She was almost never alone.
Of course we loved her, but so many people in our rental complex loved her too. We’d go for a walk and folks would holler “Hey, Lola!” and she had this particular bark that meant “Hey, I see you, how are you?” that she would offer to folks she knew. She was a complete character and made folks smile where ever she went.
She was our heart dog. We will miss her forever.
So, so sorry to hear such sad news. In your telling, Lola always sounded like a wonderful dog. I remember you saying, when we got Beryl, that Lola made you laugh every day, which is an example Beryl has followed. I often think of that when she does something crazy.
Fifteen is a great age for a dog, not that that’s any comfort right now, but she had fifteen great years with you and that’s something to hold on to.
Yeah, my brain has been warring with my heart. Like you say, 15 is a ripe old age for a dog and she had a good life. But my heart is like “We coulda made it to 16, or to 17!” Of course the same internal argument would’ve been had if we lost her at 20! It was never going to be enough time.
Very sorry for your loss.
Thank you, we appreciate your thoughts.
I’m so sorry for your and Angela’s loss, Pete.
I don’t think you can ever be ‘prepared’ for a loss of someone you love, be that a pet or person.
I hope you can be kind to yourself for the next little bit, and just give yourself some time, even perhaps a bit off work. I did see in a previous post it sounds like a bit of a shit show there as well, but sometimes life just has to come first.
My immediate boss is being super nice about this and told me to take as much time as I need, which was nice. I’m at work but doing all the little busy work things just to keep myself occupied but not have to think too much.
But thanks for your thoughts, we really appreciate how kind and concerned our Internet friends and acquaintances have been. It has meant a lot!