Postby connie » Sun Sep 14, 2014 6:20 am
When Pip was diagnosed with liver disease, I thought I knew how it would end: she would decline to the point that she couldn't keep food down, she would be nauseated constantly and tired, and I would have to call Dr Matt to come over to the house for a final visit.
Boy, was I wrong.
Miss Pip was hanging out in the yard with the rest of the Hooligans yesterday, and when I rounded them up to go back in so I could get ready to take Alex to Nosework class, Pip stopped by the pond to get a drink. She did this frequently; she also liked, on warm days, to lie on the flagstones sides of the pond, enjoying the coolness and the shade from the big red-twig dogwoods out there. Often I'd look up from my book, in my lawn chair on the other side of the pond, and see Pip enjoying the day there.
This time, as she got a drink from the pond, a tendon in her heart apparently snapped, and she swan-dived into the pond, we think she was dead before she hit the water. There are cinder-blocks in the pond, and any dog that falls in can use them to stand on and/or to get out, but when I found Pip just minutes later, she was in the pond, dead.
How's that for a freakout on a summer afternoon? I screamed loudly and long. My next-door neighbor, Bill, came tearing out to see what was going on. We removed Pip's body from the pond -- NOT something I ever want to experience again, thank you!! -- and I called the vet clinic, which was closing in 10 minutes, to tell them they had to stay open for me to bring Pip's body in. They did. They were so, so nice. From the vet tech who let me cry on his shoulder and offered to run across the street to get me a bottle of water or pop, to the admins who came into the exam room and hugged me and said 'oh, no, not Miss Pip!', to the vet, Elizabeth, who hugged me before she turned her attention to Pippi. When she looked at Pip's physical signs, she said 'absolutely, she didn't drown, this is a cardiac event. This looks like a chordeae tendon snapped, Connie, and she would have bled out immediately.' My rescue Irwin went that way, two years ago. It's fast, and there isn't really any suffering.
So GOOD FOR YOU, MISS PIP, for cheating the liver disease! I'm so happy you didn't decline and feel crummy and I didn't have to decide if you were good for another week or month ... what an exit, my Pippi! You were a piece of work all your life, and now you are unforgettable in your departure!
One of a kind. Much missed. She would have turned 17 on November 11 this year; I'm going to give her the extra 2 months and say she made it to 17. With such style!!
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