We had one of the worst weeks ever after we got back from the Grand
Canyon. It started with this awful sickness that cycled through everyone
in the family except me. The boys had it while we were at the Grand
Canyon. Ashley had it for the trip home and the few days following. Then
Danny caught it and was out of work for 3 days because of it. And
Alyssa was the last one to unfortunately get it. We had hoped that she
would stay healthy since she had her Fiddler on the Roof play that
weekend. No such luck. She had to perform, headache, fever, and all.
Then, on Friday, Casey got sick. It started in the middle of the night.
Camden woke me up around 3:30 in the morning and refused to go back to
his bed. So we headed downstairs in order to let everyone else continue
sleeping. As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I heard a strange sound
coming from the kitchen. It sounded like there was an animal growling.
As I walked closer to investigate, I found Casey on the kitchen floor
having a seizure. I ran to him and pet him and called his name, but he
was unresponsive. So I woke up Danny. By the time we got back
downstairs, he was done with the seizure, but was still panting and not
able to get up. When he finally did get up, he was obviously disoriented
and not doing well. Danny found an animal hospital that was open all
night and we called them to see what we should do. After talking to
them, we felt better about waiting it out until morning to take him to
our normal vet. That is, until he started having another seizure. Danny
held him until he was done and then carried him out to his truck and
took him to the overnight animal hospital. After being examined by the
vet, we learned
that he had a brain tumor that was causing the seizures. They couldn't
get him to take medication, so they put an IV in with the hopes of
getting the seizures under control so that we could take him home. They
held him there all day on the IV, but he continued to have the seizures
pretty regularly. Around 4:30 that afternoon Danny called and told me to
bring the kids to the vet so that we could say goodbye. That was
probably the hardest thing we have ever had to do in our lives. It was
hard enough to say goodbye to our sweet dog, but the time between when I
found out that Casey was dying and when we would actually get to the
vet and tell the kids broke my heart. I didn't want to shatter their
world.
We
spent 1-2 hours in a private room at the vet saying goodbye. We cried,
we hugged him, we talked to him, and shared our favorite stories about
him. When it was getting late and we felt like we were just delaying the
inevitable, I took the kids to get dinner and ice cream while Danny
stayed with Casey. He died about 30 minutes after we left.
We
have had a hard time adjusting to life with out Casey, but we continue
to go on. I don't know how long we will continue to look at the back
door for him or think of him every time we have leftover food or when
food falls on the floor, but I imagine it will be a long time before any
of those thoughts go away. We lost him a couple of years earlier than
we expected and because it happened so suddenly, I think it has hit us
harder than expected. Danny and I had started to dread this day a few
years ago when we saw how attached the kids were to Casey, especially
Ashley. We had pictured in our minds watching him grow old and seeing
his health gradually get worse. I don't think any of the scenarios we
pictured resembled this day. We will always miss him. Here are some of
our favorite pictures from his life.
That
last one was taken during our family photo shoot a few weeks before we
died. We are so glad we decided to bring him to the photo shoot because
now we have some great pictures to remember him by. We will always miss
Casey. He was the best dog we could have ever asked for.
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