Not really a lot of good news here...
Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you skipped this entry entirely. :(
We had Lexie, our black lab, put down this morning. ~sniffles~ We adopted her from the local animal shelter, and they kinda lied to us when we adopted her. They told us they thought she was about four years old and perfectly healthy, but when we took her to our vet to to be checked out, he said she was about eight years old and had heart worms and severe allergies. We treated her for the worms and gave her regular doses of Benadryl, which helped her allergies immensely.
We had her two years, and she was a good dog. Someone had once trained her well, and we still don't have a clue how she ended up running the streets with a pack of dogs and then captured by the animal control officer. But the past few months, she began developing the faint milky film on her eyes that signified the beginning of cataracts, and she had a persistent limp in her right back leg that would come and go. It gradually grew worse until it was affecting both her back legs. Yesterday, we noticed she had a lot of difficulty getting around, and this morning, she could barely get up, not even to retrieve her favorite treat of a sliced up weenie. So my dad took her to the vet to be put down.
Knowing when to let go is the hardest part of having a pet, but it's an owner's responsibility to do what's best for them, and I believe that allowing an animal to suffer needlessly is cruel.
I'm out $400.00 ($250.00 for a new hot water heater and $150.00 for the plumbing work), but at least the leak discovered yesterday is now fixed. Next week, I have people scheduled to come repair the outside of the house (the wood is rotting in places) and paint the whole thing. By the time all this is over, I'll be broke. :( But maybe ~crosses fingers~ I'll have the biggest and most desperately needed repairs done.
However, all that said, I shouldn't complain. We had two good years with Lexie, and we loved her, and I believe she grew to love us. I have a home and the money to have repairs made. A lot of people don't have that much.
We had Lexie, our black lab, put down this morning. ~sniffles~ We adopted her from the local animal shelter, and they kinda lied to us when we adopted her. They told us they thought she was about four years old and perfectly healthy, but when we took her to our vet to to be checked out, he said she was about eight years old and had heart worms and severe allergies. We treated her for the worms and gave her regular doses of Benadryl, which helped her allergies immensely.
We had her two years, and she was a good dog. Someone had once trained her well, and we still don't have a clue how she ended up running the streets with a pack of dogs and then captured by the animal control officer. But the past few months, she began developing the faint milky film on her eyes that signified the beginning of cataracts, and she had a persistent limp in her right back leg that would come and go. It gradually grew worse until it was affecting both her back legs. Yesterday, we noticed she had a lot of difficulty getting around, and this morning, she could barely get up, not even to retrieve her favorite treat of a sliced up weenie. So my dad took her to the vet to be put down.
Knowing when to let go is the hardest part of having a pet, but it's an owner's responsibility to do what's best for them, and I believe that allowing an animal to suffer needlessly is cruel.
I'm out $400.00 ($250.00 for a new hot water heater and $150.00 for the plumbing work), but at least the leak discovered yesterday is now fixed. Next week, I have people scheduled to come repair the outside of the house (the wood is rotting in places) and paint the whole thing. By the time all this is over, I'll be broke. :( But maybe ~crosses fingers~ I'll have the biggest and most desperately needed repairs done.
However, all that said, I shouldn't complain. We had two good years with Lexie, and we loved her, and I believe she grew to love us. I have a home and the money to have repairs made. A lot of people don't have that much.