Doodle

Today I said goodbye to my buddy, my pup who has been by my side for the last 9 years.  It came as a total surprise, and I am still struggling to believe that he's not going to walk into my room at any minute.

We adopted Jack from the APA when he was a year old.  We knew nothing about Labradoodles at the time, but he was a sweet dog and the first (and only) pup we visited with on the first day we began looking for a new addition to the family.  We lucked out, plain and simple.

Jack immediately fit in to our family.  He was extremely active, and if he had a ball with him, he was in heaven.  He never met a tennis ball he didn't love, and he would fetch all day if you let him.  As he aged, sometimes those hours of fetch ended up with a dose of an anti-inflammatory, but it never seemed to slow him down much.  He had taken more breaks in the last couple of years, but then he would trot over again and drop his ball at your feet.

Jack never met a person he didn't like, and the feeling was mutual.  Our two closest neighbors considered him part of the family.  They'd play ball with him, let him hang out with them if they were working outside, and in general enjoyed having him around (for the most part.  I guarantee he was underfoot at times, too.)  I'll never forget the time when a maintenance worker, who had done work at the neighbor's house a week before ours, knocked on the door to let me know he was there and asked where Jack was.  I had never met the worker before, but he had played ball with Jack when he was working across the street.  Unfortunately, Jack was at the groomer that day, but that's a prime example of the type of pup Jack was.  Friend to all.

Jack needed to be close to his people.  He would lie down on my feet or climb on the couch and put his head on my lap.  He would lie down in the kitchen a few feet away while I cooked or lie down under the table if that's where someone was sitting.  Devoted buddy.

I mentioned that he was active.  His favorite place was running around outside on our three acres.  Four years ago, we almost lost him because of this, however.  Jack came across a wild animal (believed to have been a mountain lion), and he was attacked.  Our vet did surgery on him and I believe saved his life.  After that, he didn't roam as much and stayed closer to the house, but he still preferred to be outside and loved it even more if one of his people were out there, too.

Friday night, Jack kept waking us up because he was coughing.  Then he'd want to go outside.  He sounded like he was going to vomit a couple of times, but never did.  We assumed he had gotten into something, like he often did.  All day Saturday, I thought he was moving slower and he just didn't seem himself, but it was not an obvious situation of knowing something serious was going on.  Again, just assumed his belly was upset.  Sunday night, after he didn't eat dinner, I started feeling around on his belly and noticed how hard it was.  I also realized he had never vomited like he would normally have had he eaten something bad.  Things just weren't right, but I couldn't pinpoint the problem.  I was concerned he might have had a blockage or something and called an animal hospital.  They told me they needed to see him.  Still from the time we left until the time the vet came back to talk to me after his X-rays, I thought Jack was ok.

What I did not expect to hear:  "He has a large tumor on his spleen."  He was bleeding and had an infection.  The outlook was grim.  Without rehashing the details, I decided to take him home to let him see the kids one more time, to allow them to say goodbye.  I was told he may not make it through the night.  He did, but it was a rough night.  He was obviously uncomfortable and having trouble breathing.  We were able to get into our regular vet right away when the office opened and went over everything again.  The conclusion was there was no good solution for him, and we said our gut-wrenching goodbyes to him.  

I can't believe how fast everything happened.  I miss him like crazy and can't believe my buddy is gone.  He walked with me through some hard stuff: finishing my degree, our adoption process, and many, many other things.  I could always count on him.

May you have an endless supply of tennis balls, Doodle.  I love you forever!

http://www.apamo.org/jack-the-social-butterfly/