Fifth Avenue Forum

Cheers, Grasshopper.

This sucks

so very sorry for your loss. you gave him a great life.

Sorry for your loss, red.

Ugh. Sorry for your loss @redwill

Thank you all for the kind words of support.

It's weird. I try to remember the good times, but I can only think of the past few months which were so troublesome for him (and, to be honest, for us). That fact makes me more sure we made the right decision.

But, hey! How about the good around us?

Of the brood in my house right now,

Kansa
Cricket
Jake (BooBooZela)
Odin
Sebastian (Sea-Bass -- anyone remember J-S Aubin?)
Silly Billy
Malcolm
Jenny
Sam

are all doing great!

Xander
Shadow
Koda

are doing less well, but their issues are more orthopedic (arthritis, etc.) and not systemic or life-threatening. As of yet. Part of our rescue is a senior hospice care so they'll be with us until it's their time. Hopefully a while.

I would post pictures of all of them, but posting pictures on a message board has become a rather tedious chore. Anyway, thanks again.

You probably already know, but that will fade and the good memories take over again.

Yeah.

I take no pride in saying that -- because of our hospice care -- I have probably overseen the deaths of ten times more dogs than many of you will ever own in your lives.

I always have to remind myself of the moment. When the dog finally dies on its own or when the vet pushes that plunger of drugs in ... when that last breath, that last heartbeat, that last spark in the eye fades, I always want just ten seconds more. Ten seconds more of recognition that we're there.

And so I always think about that when I know the time is coming. I always remind myself that I have those seconds ... in the moment. I try to tell myself that and cherish it. But it's tough.

Absolutely. Cancer took my last dog. I had a lot of 'what if' anguish when we put her down. It took about as long as it would've taken for the cancer to finish the job before I started feeling okay about the decision.

Then we adopted a dog older than her. No cure for whatever dog people have.

You do good work redwill

I swear there is a plot by the animal hospital where my dog only gets sick late Friday afternoon or on holiday weekends. Diarrhea, shaking, called regular vet and they said put her on bland diet. She loves that but won’t touch it. By the time I that happened They were closed. Great.

We’ll see how she’s doing in the morning. It’s two bills to get in the door plus probably 5 for blood tests and x rays.

Ah man, good luck with everything.

One week later and doggo is back to (mostly) normal with some tummy meds on Monday. Avoided the pet hospital, fortunately.

Glad to hear that!

I used to send worn shirts back to my dog when I was overseas so she could sleep with them.

🥺

I low key hate this thread. I always hold my breath opening it.

That tweet did bum me out. We're heading down to Tennessee for a long weekend. We like to take Ava on trips with us but my Aunt is something of a pet hoarder and there just isn't room in the house for another midsized dog. So she's going to boarding for the first time. It's at the same facility where we take her to daycare so I'm hoping she enjoys it. Or at least that it feels less like doggie prison.

Our dog loves when we board him (at least from what we can tell). It's also the same place he goes for doggie day care. They have cameras set up in the play areas so you can check in, and we usually get little emails on a daily basis with how he is doing when he is boarded. He basically gets to just run around for a few days and play with other dogs (we don't have a fenced in yard).

Ava is funny. She has kind of an Eeyore personality. We drop her off at daycare, she shows no enthusiasm. We pick her up, lots of 'meh.' She kind of really is a 15 year old.

But yeah, when I check in on the webcam she's either plodding around sniffing butts or snoozing. The apprehension is probably mostly held on my side.

Murphy is an alpha...or at least until challenged then he backs right down lol.

Usually at camp he sits on top of the green bridge thing that over looks the play area and just judges unless he feels the need to do something else lol.

Ava does a lot of following the lady around. A lot.

Are you with Dogtopia? We're happy with ours here in Greensburg. Though I think the East Pittsburgh location might be a haul for you. My only issue with them, in our case, is the building is two stories and Ava doesn't do steps well. If she's having a slow day they'll put her in ground level room even though it's not the best fit.

Ava does a lot of following the lady around. A lot.

Are you with Dogtopia? We're happy with ours here in Greensburg. Though I think the East Pittsburgh location might be a haul for you. My only issue with them, in our case, is the building is two stories and Ava doesn't do steps well. If she's having a slow day they'll put her in ground level room even though it's not the best fit.

We are with Camp Bow Wow. We have been taking Murphy there since he was old enough to go. He will be 5 this December so at least 4+ years. We did training with them when he was a puppy as well.

They have a location along 22 in Monroeville which is like 10 minutes from our house. I know they have quite a few other locations spread around the Pittsburgh area too.