Maggie the dog died just the other day. It was sudden to us,
although, I guess, it had been long in developing. We were out at a concert and
friends were with her and our new dog, and texted us that Maggie couldn’t close
her mouth. They worried that something was stuck in there and tried to get it
out but there was nothing they could find. We came home and she was not
whimpering or having difficulty breathing, but couldn’t close her mouth and
drooling. We took her to the emergency vet hospital, and they ended up over
some hours sedating her to examine her. She had a hugely enlarged tongue which
was a tumor, not blood or abscess. Perhaps it had just grown to a certain
point, or perhaps she injured it chewing something and it swelled more and that
threw it over the edge. It couldn’t have been taken out with clean margins, and
even if it had she would have had no tongue and no way to eat or drink. We said
goodbye and were with her as the veterinarian euthanized her peacefully.
It was very hard, harder because my father died just two
weeks ago and we are still reeling from that. Maggie was a really good dog,
kind and sweet and loving of attention. She was probably 12 or so, so we knew
we would lose her eventually, but had no idea it was imminent. Ironically, we
had just gotten a new dog from the shelter a few days earlier, to be trained by
Maggie on being on good dog, but had no idea she’d be gone in 3 days. Just that
morning we went on our usual 1.5 mile walk through the desert, and later Pat
and the dogs went on another long walk. Everyone who walked dogs around here
knew her, and knew how sweet she was. She ate and drank well until the mid-afternoon.
And now she is gone. And we miss her. Maggie’s former buddy, Fry, died earlier
this year, also from cancer, but he went downhill over several weeks.
We will miss you very much, Maggie. We hope that Molly can
someday emulate your grace. We are glad that when the time came you were able
to exit peacefully. And I hope that when my time comes I am as well. Maybe by
then we will `be able to let people who have come to the end leave with as much
dignity as we let dogs.
RIP, love.
