I wonder how hard it's going to be for me to do a post about our most precious dog, Casper. Eventually, I would like to do a full tribute to my dear friend, including pictures and the like. For now, I'm just going to say something brief to help my commenters realize why my heart aches and why I may or may not respond fully to every comment.
Our dog has lung cancer. I imagine that we are going to eventually have to put him down, yet for now, he seems to have his good and bad days. We have him on some anti-seizure medicine, Phenobarbital, which seems to have calmed him way down and even helped to stop his coughing spells. When he gets to breathing really hard or coughing, we just set him next to the fan and he calms down and sleeps and than perks up a little. It's hard to watch him breathing hard like that, so when he gets to the point in which he is like that a lot of the time, we will be putting him down.
This is so hard and I've already been crying over it.
We also have some out of town company coming on Friday, so I'm going to spend some time cleaning up and getting ready for them.
Please do feel free to continue commenting on my blog. I'm going to check the computer daily and post the comments, but I may or may not respond. Thanks for your understanding. I love ya' all. Take care.
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10 comments:
Dogs are loyal friends..that is so sad. What kind of dog is Casper?
A well-written blog. Having had dogs and cats my whole life, now mostly cats, you speak for alot of people.
I'm sorry to hear this, Lista. Yes, it's terribly sad and of course nothing I can say will make it any better but I truly do understand.
Our pets are very much part of our family. Our oldest dog, Angel, just died. We had her on medication for two years for a cronic cough, and she was very old. We found she had passed and my hubby buried her on Father's day, so you see, I do understand. Separation is always hard, but hold close to the fact that you have given your dog a wonderful life with a lot of love. That's what helps me, along with knowing that Angel isn't suffering anymore.
May God bless you and help you through it.
Thanks so much you guys for your comments. Sorry that it took me so long to even look at my computer in order to post them. Casper passed away at 9:40 AM this morning.
Never in my life have I ever been so attached to a dog before like I am to this one. I am really taking this hard. I heard a thud in the hall way and when I went to check on him, he was gone. We put him in a box and took him to the vet for cremation. We will bury his ashes a little later when they complete the process.
We are entertaining some out of town company this weekend, so I'll get back with more details later.
I am very sorry for your loss, Lista.
Hello again,
Well, our out of town company left right after lunch Yesterday. They went to church with us and then they took us out to lunch. There appear to be a lot of dog lovers at our church because we got all kinds of encouragement. It was great. Praise God!!
Thanks again, all of you, for your condolences and for commenting on my blog.
Hi BB,
The short version of the answer to your question is that Casper was a Heinz 57. I always thought of him, though, as so much more than a mutt.
The longer version of the answer is that we've been telling people for years that Casper is part Samoyed, yet now that he's no longer with us, I can admit that we had some pretty serious suspicions that the "Samoyed" that mated with Casper's mother may have actually been a white wolf. Once in awhile I would come across people who have been around wolfs, who would make comments such as "Oh, what a lovely wolf! He's beautiful!"
He had the temperament of a wolf, which is a little different than some may think. He was very independent, more like a cat and at times even aloof, not as obedience as some breeds, such as the German Shepherd or Lab and if he got out of the yard, there was no calling him to come back. He seemed to have more of the attitude "Are you kidding?! I'm free! I'll see you later when I'm in the mood for coming back."
It was difficult to get him to come when called. He would usually obey eventually, but only in his own good time. Usually the best approach was to call him and than walk back into the house for a few minutes and then open the door and find him out there waiting to come in. He had sort of a delayed response.
He was also whether shy and timid. You sort of had to work at it to earn his affection, yet he was very gentle and loving. All of this fits the personality profile of your basic wolf.
A lot of the Alaskan breeds are a little this way too and Casper did sort of pull on the leash like a sled dog, yet there was this one gal that I knew that used to raise wolfs and knew instantly that that is what Casper was.
We later discovered that there was a male, white wolf mix, that lived just across the street from where Casper was born. Sounds pretty suspicious to me, so that is what I'm going to call him.
He was obviously mixed with something smaller, though, because he only weighted 37 pounds.
Z-man,
It's funny you called this post "well written", for I wrote it in such a hurry. I hope to do a much better tribute to him later.
Gayle,
Like I said, I've been taking this loss really hard, yet I do feel better today. It was such a blessing to have out of town guests. They arrived in the late afternoon the same day that Casper died and left just after lunch Yesterday.
I'm a little surprised to discover that my husband appears to be just as attached to him as I am. He is having a really rough time as well.
Thanks so much for your encouraging words. I offer you our condolences as well.
Thanks Beth,
I'm glad to know that you are still hanging around. I need to get back over to your blog again soon.
He must have been a beautiful animal being part white wolf and all. How old was he?
He was 12 1/2, due to be 13 in October. I'll eventually do a post about him with pictures and all, but we have another situation going on again.
There are all these fires going on up here in Northern California. We packed up our car just in case during the time in which we were also stressing over Casper. We then unpacked our car just before our company arrived because it appeared to be safe and we wanted to put some of the pictures back on the wall for our company.
Next, we had a thunder storm, starting still more fires, one close enough to make us feel threatened again, so we have packed up the car again. Man! Is this ever going to end? I really do think that our house is going to be Ok, but you never know what fire is going to decide to do. I'm quite tired, though, of feeling stressed. I'd really like to return to normal life soon.
I remained silent about the fire, because I thought it might give too many hints about where we live and I was also more stressed about the dog, than about the fire, yet when is there ever only one thing causing stress, trials always seem to come in groups, whether than one at a time. Oh well.
You are due for some good news for a change, Lista, and I will say a prayer for your safety and for your home.
Thanks Beth,
I find that if I allow myself to think about whether or not there is something more that we could have done, this causes me to morn the loss even more. It is important that we do not punish ourselves in that way. When I listen to the news on the fire and they mention things relating to the safety of animals, it makes me feel really sad, because our animal is already dead.
Thanks for your prayers and for continuing to drop by. God bless.
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