Re: Heartbroken I'm sure you will know when the time is right for a new addition to join your family. Our puppy Buddy has helped to fill a hole in our lives, but not a day goes by when I don't think about & dearly miss Ted. It helped my boys (and I) to make a planter with an engraved pebble with his name and a special message on. I'm often found talking to him while tending the flowers!
Re: Heartbroken I lost my last girl at 8 to a rare spinal tumour. I got her ashes to scatter and was intending to scatter them in the river, her favourite place. Just couldn't do it, it (irrationally) felt like I was throwing her away. So her ashes are in the sunroom where her basket was and that is where they will stay. Our family was devastated by her loss but when we got her ashes back it helped - it felt like she came home. Hugs to you all
Re: Heartbroken Our old boy Nicolae is at home, buried in our backyard under an engraved stone. We got a large canvas made of a photo of him on the beach and that's hung in a prominent place in our house. It helps to be able to see them or something of them. It's all so sad. Thinking of you and your family, Christine.
Re: Heartbroken The ashes of my boys are in the garden, where the spring flowers grow. It really helps to see the daffodils and bluebells coming up in the spring; it reminds me of Billy and Bones in a really good way. Christine, you wrote of your regret in not being able to say goodbye to Zoe properly and not being able to tell her you loved her - don't worry; she knew that completely.
Re: Heartbroken [quote author=Christine Ridley link=topic=5014.msg62882#msg62882 date=1395521333] Hello I am new to this site. Was searching for answers and trying to make some sense of us losing our beloved 'Zoe' who was put to sleep on Tuesday and came across this site. Wish I had found it earlier when we still had Zoe with us for the precious 7 years she blessed this earth. 3 weeks ago I took her to the vet as she had started to drink bowls of water, was urinating a lot and was off her food. My initial thought was diabetes and on the vet checking her sample of urine she agreed. To confirm this she took a glucose test which surprised her with the results, it was low. Bloods were then taken and the results the next day concluded she was not diabetic. I was very relieved and we were told it was probably a bit of an infection, keep an eye on her and go back if we were still concerned she wasn't getting any better. Things didn't improve but gradually got worse. She was very lethargic, drinking loads, not interested in eating (which was totally out of character) and then she started vomiting anything she did eat or drink. We went straight back to the vet and she was given an anti sickness jab and a thorough examination again and told to bring her in again if things didn't improve. I must say at this point, our Vet was fantastic, she phoned to check on progress regularly and followed things through the whole time. Then, last Friday I came home from work to Zoe lying in her usual spot under the kitchen table and she just had no energy and looked very sad. I gave her a tummy rub as usual and I thought her skin on her tummy had a yellow tinge. This made me check her eyes and they were very yellow which obviously indicated jaundice. We phoned the vet immediately and were seen a while later when the vet gave her antibiotics and jabs to stock sickness again. Our hope was that she had a liver infection and the antibiotics would clear this. Over the weekend we did see an improvement in Zoe. She managed to eat more without being sick and she seemed brighter so on the Sunday night we were very optimistic about her condition. However, by Monday morning she started vomiting again and the vet said she would like her taken over to their head practice for X-rays on Tuesday. We arrived at 10am as arranged and went away for half an hour while X-rays were taken. When we returned the vet showed us and talk through them. They weren't very clear, there were no masses, the liver did look enlarged but there was nothing to raise alarm bells. She had been given a barrio meal and the vet requested we go home for a few hours to see if she passed it and the practice would phone us when she was ready to come home. At this point I wasn't particularly worried and was just looking forward to her coming home. A couple of hours later the vet phoned and he said that unfortunately the barrio meal hadn't moved from her stomach and he was concerned as they're must be a blockage. He said he would like to operate while she was there to see what was going on inside but said if he found something that was not good the kindest thing to do would be to put her to sleep whilst she was anesthetised. This had never crossed my mind, on hindsite, perhaps I was in denial, but I was shocked and broke down on the phone. He again said he would start the operation and give us a phone back with his findings. 20 mins later the phone rang and my husband answered...I saw his face crumple and I knew then that my beloved Zoe had been taken from us. When they opened her up they discovered her liver to be riddled with cancer and it had also moved to her spleen. They had never seen such an aggressive cancer in such a young dog. Zoe was only 7, far too young to be taken from this life.the past 5 days since this happened have been the unhappiest time of my life. I have never felt pain like this. I feel so sorry that I never said goodbye properly to her and told her how much I love her. Her ashes will be ready to collect next Friday and I'm in limbo until then. I just want people to be aware of this horrible form of cancer. The symptoms came of so quickly, she didn't stand a chance and I don't want anyone to go through what we have gone through. I have looked up Liver cancer and all the tell tale symptoms mirror Zoe's and I just wish I had prepared myself better for perhaps losing her but it all happened so quickly. I miss her so much. :'( [/quote] Hi have just read your sad news about your loss of Zoe....am so sorry to hear this. I am new to the site also and we lost one of our much adored dogs in January with epilepsy...he was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, big brother to our lab Lola who is 2.6 yrs now. It really is the most harrowing time and I can understand everything you are feeling. We have our boys ashes here in a beautiful wooden casket...along with our 2 other previous dogs. It makes me feel better to know they are with me still. My granddaughter who is 6 has been especially upset at the loss of Mitch so we have told her his 'Box' is full of waggy tails and happy memories and she has accepted that and always takes great delight in telling people her big brother as she called him is in Doggy Heaven but his happy bits are with us! Children are very resilient arnt they...wish we were ! Old cliche I know but time does make things a little bit easier, I think of my Mitch every single day...more often than not with tears because there's always that part of you that thinks could I have done more but there won't have been....Zoe was a lucky girl to have had such a loving caring family to have been part of. I hope the collection of her ashes brings you some comfort to know you have her back. Just take each day as it comes, my thoughts and best wishes to you all. Xx
Re: Heartbroken I am so sorry for your loss! It is absolutely one of the hardest things in life to lose a beloved pet. Thoughts and prayers to you and your family. I'm sure a lot of us on this forum know the pain you are going through - FNITGuy and myself lost our 9 yr old black lab very unexpectedly back in November. Very very tough! Try to keep the good memories of Zoe...I'm sure she knew you loved her! Dogs always know! We have kept Gunner's ashes as well - we bought a nice urn and have them to put in that so he is always close to us.
Re: Heartbroken Lolopops, I lost my just 8 year old to epilepsy, he went into status epilepticus at about 3am, he hadn't had a fit for 8 months, so it was such a shock. The vet said he would be brain damaged as his temperature was so high from having the fits so he was put to sleep at 4am. I have five dogs ashes in boxes in my study and don't know what to do with them, think I will bury them in the garden as don't want them discarded when I die and at least they will be home forever if in the garden.
