urgh
So, as I'd written a couple weeks ago, things with Kiera and the dog were not working out at all. We did some intensive training with the dog to the point where he left her alone 99% of the time, but sadly that was still not enough as that 1% would leave her miserable. she'd just stay in the cat tree all day looking and acting miserable and essentially shunning the entire world. so we tried prozac to see if that would help her, since at that point she was acting like a shell of her former self and it was entirely heartbreaking to watch. while i admit that i'm not 100% behind giving animals drugs, we also wanted to try every option (short of giving up the dog) to make things more tolerable for her. but then it got to a point where tolerable was about the best we could hope for, and tolerable really seemed unfair to her. So this week a dear friend of mine came and took her to live with him, she left yesterday on an epic journey back to the east coast (where there are still moments where I think that is where I belong) and from all accounts she is thriving. which is awesome and also sad. it's awesome because, hell, she's thriving already and considering having a cross country flight and being introduced to a new environment, I worried she'd be a little shaky at first. but it's also sad to realize how happy of a cat she could be, and how the 1+2 punch of adding a puppy and losing luna really hurt her, and really nothing we could do to our home was going to make things better. but yeah, so that is a huge change. it sucks not having her here, but it is wonderful to know she is really happy again. plus i totally adore the friend who took her, so i know that she will always be in my life at least somewhat.
this week also sadly marked the death of my parent's dog Teddy. A couple weeks after Hurricane Sandy, they found a rusted out bucket (not something they owned, something that ended up on the property after the storm) full of stagnant water in their backyard under some bushes, completely obscured from sight. worried that the dog might have been drinking from it, they took him to the vet for some bloodwork (obviously first they got rid of the bucket) and his WBC was all screwed up which everyone assumed was an acquired infection from drinking the stagnant water. so he had a week or two of antibiotics and some steroid shots and he seemed to improve. Then he lost 20lbs practically overnight and stopped eating and just seemed miserable, so again back to the vet where they determined his pancreas was not working properly so he had more meds and steroids which again worked briefly. repeat this cycle a few times with a new diagnosis every time before my parents demanded that the vet do some sort of ultrasound or exploratory surgery to look at his insides. I guess around that time he'd completely stopped eating and they were tired of just doing bloodwork. i had no idea they could do ultrasounds on dogs, but they can, and they did, and they discovered that his organs were just riddled with tumors and he had a huge one on his esophagus (hence the not eating). they then conferred with a canine oncologist and the general consensus was that nothing could really be done. i didn't press them on what sort of cancer it was ( on a selfish note, i really hope it wasn't mast cell related) and that the best thing to do would be to put him to sleep. which obviously they weren't expecting as everything happened so fast and so aggressively. while my parents aren't the type of pet owners who would opt for surgery/chemo for an animal, i think they would have for Teddy. he went everywhere with them. so it was obviously really heartbreaking.
i guess they were part of some meetup group for berner owners, and my dad emailed the list owner asking to be taken off the list since he no longer had a dog, and after the requisite "omg i'm so sorry he was such a good boy" stuff, she mentioned that she knew of two rescues on the island, both of which were in need of homes because their owners were moving and couldn't take them with them. so my parents are going to go meet with the dogs this weekend....which i think it awesome but i also worry that newdog won't live up to Teddy's legacy. But here's hoping they find a good match. I don't think at this age my parents really want a puppy, but I do really think they need to have some sort of animal-pal in the house.
this week also sadly marked the death of my parent's dog Teddy. A couple weeks after Hurricane Sandy, they found a rusted out bucket (not something they owned, something that ended up on the property after the storm) full of stagnant water in their backyard under some bushes, completely obscured from sight. worried that the dog might have been drinking from it, they took him to the vet for some bloodwork (obviously first they got rid of the bucket) and his WBC was all screwed up which everyone assumed was an acquired infection from drinking the stagnant water. so he had a week or two of antibiotics and some steroid shots and he seemed to improve. Then he lost 20lbs practically overnight and stopped eating and just seemed miserable, so again back to the vet where they determined his pancreas was not working properly so he had more meds and steroids which again worked briefly. repeat this cycle a few times with a new diagnosis every time before my parents demanded that the vet do some sort of ultrasound or exploratory surgery to look at his insides. I guess around that time he'd completely stopped eating and they were tired of just doing bloodwork. i had no idea they could do ultrasounds on dogs, but they can, and they did, and they discovered that his organs were just riddled with tumors and he had a huge one on his esophagus (hence the not eating). they then conferred with a canine oncologist and the general consensus was that nothing could really be done. i didn't press them on what sort of cancer it was ( on a selfish note, i really hope it wasn't mast cell related) and that the best thing to do would be to put him to sleep. which obviously they weren't expecting as everything happened so fast and so aggressively. while my parents aren't the type of pet owners who would opt for surgery/chemo for an animal, i think they would have for Teddy. he went everywhere with them. so it was obviously really heartbreaking.
i guess they were part of some meetup group for berner owners, and my dad emailed the list owner asking to be taken off the list since he no longer had a dog, and after the requisite "omg i'm so sorry he was such a good boy" stuff, she mentioned that she knew of two rescues on the island, both of which were in need of homes because their owners were moving and couldn't take them with them. so my parents are going to go meet with the dogs this weekend....which i think it awesome but i also worry that newdog won't live up to Teddy's legacy. But here's hoping they find a good match. I don't think at this age my parents really want a puppy, but I do really think they need to have some sort of animal-pal in the house.