As many of you know I have old Great Danes. Sunday our little boy took his last breath on our deck and died. I am just crushed. It was a sweet sorrow as we knew we were going to have to make that decision before long as he was just getting to heavy and weak to haul around with the towel around his hiney. But he just adapted so well to anything that came up just so he could be around, it was hard to call an end to that spirit. The sweet boy he was, he took that decision out of our hands.
Sunday evening we had been outside trying to get some things done and when we came in he was on his bed kinda choking and had thrown up foam. I thought he must have gotten something stuck in his throat as they had just eaten. I calmed him and he seemed to settle then he was having trouble breathing and had a gurgling noise when he would inhale, then his jaws would close tightly. As I look back I think he may of been having a mild seizure. We called the emergency vet, closest being 45 miles away. They could only tell us to bring him in. We got on the floor and he seemed to calm way down, couldn't lay on his side with out having troubles, but is he laid on his tummy, he was doing okay. We decided to take him in, in the morning and I would stay with him on the floor that night to make sure he was okay. So we got him up to go outside to go potty, and when he got on the deck he laid down and died. It was just a few breaths and he was gone. He was home and in his mom and dads arms which is where he would have wanted to be anyway, not in a vets office.
Loosing an animal is always hard, I had many extra years with Petey than most do with Danes, and we cared for him making sure he was included and as comfortable as possible in his elder years. But the hole that is left is huge! I still have his sister and our Rescue Jacky, they are morning too. Monday they both went out on the deck and laid where he had died most all day. They are still not eating well and are looking around every corner for him. It is just lonely without him :(
Petey was my best friend, there thru Jeffery's death cuddled with me for months, made me get up to take him out when I didn't want to, made me get up to feed him when I didn't want to and let me sleep longer than I should when I needed too. He was there when all the grand kids were born, checking them out on the floor when they would come over, deciding it was something he wasn't really thrilled about but it was okay he would just lay down and ignore "it". Then as they got older, maybe they were okay, after all they would play when they came over! He was with me when I lost my Dad, again silent but caring. He was always the funny one, his ears would cock from one side to the other when something puzzled him. He was the one that would chase the ducks into the pond on the golf course and then realize when he got in there, dumb dog couldn't swim! He also ran right into the swimming pool one evening while we were sitting out side, he was trying to beat his sister to the ball! Again, damn dog couldn't swim! He was a very sweet boy by nature, even though in his day he was 180 lbs.! I remember one day when I had him and his sister in the back of the SUV, I was facing the truck and both of their leashes in my hands, they took out of the truck and pulled me right out of my shoes! Right on my butt! They just looked at me like,what your problem??
I miss him terribly but I have many good memory's. I see him in his sister, I see him in the way he trained our little rescue as to how to act in this household, I see him on his bed with his blankie over his head, I see him on the deck sunning himself, I see him laying on his bed waiting for his treat like maybe, just maybe, this time she might forget me!
Most of all, I feel him in my heart loving me.
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