Trigger warning, this does involve animal death. You’ve been warned.
When it comes to being pet owners, our year started out with a BANG
All of December we were talking about getting a new dog. Our two cats, George and Pax, were getting up there in age (9 and 10 years old), and we had already discussed that our next pet would be a dog. We were actually in talks with one of the local shelters about getting one of their puppies, but that unfortunately fell through on their end.
Then on New Year’s Eve, Richie was talking to a long time customer of his about the dog situation, and they told him that they were actually looking to rehome their 1 year old husky. The wife was starting a cake making business, so they had to keep him outside all of the time which isn’t fair for a snow weather dog in Louisiana. They had named him Wolverine, Wolfie for short, but we changed it to Sirius when we got him New Year’s Day.
Looking back, I do sort of regret agreeing to taking him in. We loved Sirius, and still do, but that really did flip our whole world upside down.
A week after we took Sirius in, my little shadow, Pax, ran away. We’re assuming she went to one of our other neighbor’s houses because we have 3 extreme cat ladies in the neighborhood (which is saying something that I refer to them as such since we had 5 cats at one point when we first moved here). It hurt when we discovered she had ran, but we were already dealing with heartbreak because mere days after we took Sirius in, we had to put George to sleep.
Saturday, January 2nd, the day after Sirius joined our household, Sirius actually chased George into the back shed while I was at work. Richie stopped them, and made sure George was okay and brought him to be safe in our room. When I got home, I thought it was odd that George was very firmly staying under our bed. Once I got him out, he was acting weird. Normally, he was very loud and loving, but he was just lethargic and wanted to hide. When I gave him a thorough check, I noticed two odd lumps in his side. We brought him to the Emergency Vet Clinic that night. The vet there confirmed that Sirius didn’t do anything to cause him injury. George had abscessed wounds on his side that were from a week before we even got the dog, and they also discovered that he had severe diabetes and a mass against one of his kidneys while the other kidney was swollen. They weren’t sure if the mass was cancerous, and told us to bring him to his normal vet Monday morning.
Sunday, January 3rd, we brought George home around 9 in the morning after he spent the whole night at the clinic while they did their best to treat him. We did our best to keep him comfortable and snuggled him as much as we could because Richie and I knew there was a good chance we would get devastating news the next day.
Monday, January 4th, Richie brought George to our normal vet. They didn’t check to see if the mass was cancerous because after some testing, the vet determined that even if we gave George insulin shots everyday, his diabetes was too severe. He would just suffer even more as he slowly died. Neither of us could ever put him through that, so we made one of the toughest decisions in our marriage.
We’ve had George literally since the day he was born in my room at my dad’s house. He was the first one out of the whelping box, so my little brother’s friend dubbed him Curious George. George was loved by every person who has ever met him. He was the sweetest, most loveable “girthmonster” who would let you know when he wanted head scratches by getting on his hind legs and moving his front paws in the air. His other nicknames were “Borris” (said with a terrible pseudo-Russian accent) and “Jorge”.
It gets easier, but we miss him so much.
Here’s some of our vlogs featuring the cats:
1 Comment
I actually paused your video to come here and read the post due that I knew something bad happened and I have really bad anxiety (and ADHD and BPD, send help.. ) so I wasn’t about to sit and wait for all of that.
1) OMG Pax!! Come home! Please?
2) George :sob:
3) Being as you worked at a Starbucks, is there a reason why the Flat White tastes like Instant Coffee and takes me back to my childhood? God I love that drink. Should be illegal to sell that one.
4) Arya and Iris are so big!!!! <3 <3
5) oh God huskies..leads me to storytime of 2020
So, actually this started in late Nov/early Dec of 2018. My partner decided he was finally going to get a dog, a husky. A breed that I told him repeatedly to not get because this household is in no way shape or form the type of home that breed of dog should have. Obviously I was not listened to. Her name is Zuzu. Like Zuzu's Petals from "It's a Wonderful Life".
So she comes home. We have two cats. Nemo, a maine coon who was 11 at the time and Katniss who was 7 at the time. Nemo, my baby boy, my grounding rock, never liked "hyper active". He was ok with dogs, so long as they were not puppies or smaller than him. His size or larger, we cool. So in comes Zuzu, who was about 2 I think.
Katniss and Nemo run because "what witchcraft is this and why is it here?" After some talk to Katniss, reminding her how she has sharp claws, she proceeds to beat Zuzu up and Zuzu just goes with it.
Nemo. Oh Nemo. Wanted nothing, NOTHING, to do with this dog. He would screech when she would come near him. You would think that Zuzu would give up, due that Nemo would nope right on out whenever she came remotely close. No. Even my boyfriend's Dad took notice of it. Zuzu would literally stalk Nemo. Course not in a cruel way, it was in a curious, 'hey come play with me way'. I get that. But Nemo was 12 and didn't have the desire to deal with that. By stalk I mean STALK. Zuzu would wait outside the bedroom, bathroom, den, upstairs door for Nemo to come out or walk to to follow or chase after him. Zuzu busted through the screen to the sliding backdoor to try and get to Nemo. BF was repeatedly told of this and promised, PROMISED he would take care of it and if not he'd take Zuzu back to the shelter.
Then over 2019, I started to notice that Nemo was moving slower and losing some weight. Due to financial issues we couldn't get him to the vet, but I was keeping close eye on him. I thought it was most likely stress from Zuzu, but possibly maybe diabetes or thyroid.
Jan 29, 2020: BF wakes me up from a nap. Nemo is breathing funny. I go to look and it looks like he's purring, but without the purrs. nemo usually gets all excited to see me and it just laying there on a hard surface. So I pick him up, bring him into the bedroom. BF is applying for a Care Credit so we can take him to ER Vet as he was wanting for payout on a lawsuit he had won from a work accident. Get to ER Vet. They take him back, Doctor comes out and calls me into a room as BF is outside on phone to his Dad.
Nemo had Congestive Heart Failure to the point he was in end stage. His lungs were almost completely full of fluid and his heart was enlarged. My baby was dying and there was nothing I could do. I promised him that I would get him help to get him better. The Dr said that we should think about getting him to a specialist, which may take a week and they could keep him there in the oxygen tank to help him breathe. I asked her to be honest, she said "I'd be surprised if he makes it overnight let alone 3 days or more" So while my BF went home to pick up his Dad to come see Nemo on the off chance of things, I was allowed to see him. The difference within the almost 2 hours he was there was.. he look so tired and done. I even asked him 'Nemo, what do I do? You gotta tell me.' I managed to hold it all together until the end. I asked if I could hold him, cause I didn't want him on the exam table. Then the Dr said "He's gone" is when I just lost it and broke.
I asked the doctor if stress could have progressed this faster, since I have a heart condition and know how stress makes my heart react. She said, after I told her what all happened, that while this will have caught up to him eventually, that yes it would have contributed to bringing it on faster.
I love animals I do. I always have. I'm the I would rather be around animals than people at a party type. I can't stand to look at Zuzu to this day. I know it's not really or fully her fault, but for me, it's like she made Nemo's last year of life a living hell of stress and fear. Zuzu is here and my Nemo is gone.
We took in 2 cats, one is named Jack and he doesn't let me out of his sight. We took him in the day before what would have been Nemo's 13th birthday. I think he may have had a paw in the matter. I keep telling Jack he's not allowed to leave me for a long, long time.
There's my heart-break story. I'm glad that you all have things working out so well for you. Especially that Richie got a promotion and you get to stay home, not deal with cranky people early in the morning and do things you enjoy more. I saw one of your new pups in the background and hope things all work out well with them. My one friend would always go on about the 'Piranha teeth of the puppies' when she had a couple.
I like the new name for your channel too!