Well, it's been a long hard road for Blue the last year and we finally decided it was time to send her to live at a nice ranch up in the mountains where she can run and hike again, spend the days chasing squirrels or swimming, if you know what I mean. If you don't know what I mean, then I will tell you that just about a year ago to the date, Blue started having some very painful issues with one of her shoulders. After a few visits to the doctor and a very expensive MRI that really didn't tell us anything, her doctor let us know that he thought it was a very slow growing nerve root tumor. We decided that amputation or biopsy and pretty much any other treatment (massage therapy and acupuncture) might not even help and would probably going to break the bank so we opted to just medicate her and hope that she would start getting better or at least be stable. Anyways, long story short, last weekend Tim was brushing her and a huge chunk of fur fell off of her and she started bleeding. She had what looked like blood blisters all over her back. I took her to the vet Monday and she suggested that this was just the start of the end for her and if we treated this skin condition chances are we would be treating more and more conditions as the weeks or months passed. After a very sad night, watching Blue and really paying attention to her, it became apparent that we were somewhat in denial about her condition and decided that it was time to should send her up to the big old Mountain Ranch in the sky. So, here's to Blue...best dog in the world (sorry Bailey...it's true). Above is the photo of us picking her up from Cheyenne. Oh, Blue, look at how cute you were, my first baby. And look how young we were, nice jean shorts Tim! In his defense the drive up to Wyoming to get Blue was as impulsive as you can get. It was Memorial day and Tim was working on the house. I was casually reading the paper and came across an ad for
Goldens and just had to have one. Thankfully back then Tim catered to my every whim and the next thing you knew, we were on our way to Wyoming! I don't think I gave Tim a lot of time to check his clothing choices. I picked her over her sister because she had the biggest, floppiest ears I've ever seen. I held Blue in my lap the whole way back to Denver, well - until she threw up on my shirt. It stunk so bad that we stopped at a rest area and threw the shirt away and Tim drove the rest of the way home topless. It was a week or two before we settled on a name...I picked Blue because I had heard that Blue was
Australian slang for a redhead. I also remember driving her to ice cream stores for snacks in an effort to try and get her to be less afraid of the car (she would get so nervous in the truck that she would have stinky accidents, yuck!). Later in life she would try her hardest to get into the back of the truck whenever possible, even if we weren't going anywhere. Her passion and flare for launching herself into the closest body of water was quite amazing, and in her younger days she would routinely dive into any pond, stream, or lake just to rescue a random stick that happened to be in there...then later when all the sticks where out, she would dive in and try to get all the stones out too. If we hiked for 2 miles, it would be guaranteed that Blue hiked about 10...unless it was a sunny trail, then she would hike directly to the closest shady area and wait for us...and if we were hiking with a group, she would run to check up on the fast hikers, and then run to the end of the line to make sure the slow hikers were still coming, then back to the front...to the back...etc, such a thoughtful little pooch.
What a good girl she was...here she is at her finest, with her best bud Bailey (Blue is the on with the mud on her face). Blue fell in love with him the minute we brought him home. She used to play tug of war with him when he was a pup and was so gentle with him. Later on she realized what a pain in her ass he was becoming and would routinely put him in his place...I won't go into details here, it's a little graphic in nature and this is a family blog for
pete's sake! Sometimes I think that is the reason Bailey is so lacking in self confidence. Poor Bailey, he's going to be lost without her. Seriously, he gets lost easily. If you take Bailey for a walk he will keep walking right past our house and not realize that it is where he resides. Tim would take Blue out for a run and she would have the run memorized for the next time they went out. But it has been well over a year since Blue has hiked or ran, or even chased a ball. I can't remember the last time she gave a good bark down to those good-for-nothing-kids who always walked by her yard after school. She started having trouble standing up and would sometimes fall down for little reason. She was becoming a bag of old bones, no passion for life...unless you offered her a slice of turkey, then she was transformed and couldn't get over to you fast enough...or if she happened upon a stray diaper, those were
irresistible to her. She was definitely not the dog she used to be and it was very hard to see her wasting away, but such is life sometimes, I guess. Oh well, we'll miss you Blue Girl! XO
Well, it's been a long hard road for Blue the last year and we finally decided it was time to send her to live at a nice ranch up in the mountains where she can run and hike again, spend the days chasing squirrels or swimming, if you know what I mean. If you don't know what I mean, then I will tell you that just about a year ago to the date, Blue started having some very painful issues with one of her shoulders. After a few visits to the doctor and a very expensive MRI that really didn't tell us anything, her doctor let us know that he thought it was a very slow growing nerve root tumor. We decided that amputation or biopsy and pretty much any other treatment (massage therapy and acupuncture) might not even help and would probably going to break the bank so we opted to just medicate her and hope that she would start getting better or at least be stable. Anyways, long story short, last weekend Tim was brushing her and a huge chunk of fur fell off of her and she started bleeding. She had what looked like blood blisters all over her back. I took her to the vet Monday and she suggested that this was just the start of the end for her and if we treated this skin condition chances are we would be treating more and more conditions as the weeks or months passed. After a very sad night, watching Blue and really paying attention to her, it became apparent that we were somewhat in denial about her condition and decided that it was time to should send her up to the big old Mountain Ranch in the sky. So, here's to Blue...best dog in the world (sorry Bailey...it's true). Above is the photo of us picking her up from Cheyenne. Oh, Blue, look at how cute you were, my first baby. And look how young we were, nice jean shorts Tim! In his defense the drive up to Wyoming to get Blue was as impulsive as you can get. It was Memorial day and Tim was working on the house. I was casually reading the paper and came across an ad for Goldens and just had to have one. Thankfully back then Tim catered to my every whim and the next thing you knew, we were on our way to Wyoming! I don't think I gave Tim a lot of time to check his clothing choices. I picked her over her sister because she had the biggest, floppiest ears I've ever seen. I held Blue in my lap the whole way back to Denver, well - until she threw up on my shirt. It stunk so bad that we stopped at a rest area and threw the shirt away and Tim drove the rest of the way home topless. It was a week or two before we settled on a name...I picked Blue because I had heard that Blue was Australian slang for a redhead. I also remember driving her to ice cream stores for snacks in an effort to try and get her to be less afraid of the car (she would get so nervous in the truck that she would have stinky accidents, yuck!). Later in life she would try her hardest to get into the back of the truck whenever possible, even if we weren't going anywhere. Her passion and flare for launching herself into the closest body of water was quite amazing, and in her younger days she would routinely dive into any pond, stream, or lake just to rescue a random stick that happened to be in there...then later when all the sticks where out, she would dive in and try to get all the stones out too. If we hiked for 2 miles, it would be guaranteed that Blue hiked about 10...unless it was a sunny trail, then she would hike directly to the closest shady area and wait for us...and if we were hiking with a group, she would run to check up on the fast hikers, and then run to the end of the line to make sure the slow hikers were still coming, then back to the front...to the back...etc, such a thoughtful little pooch. 
1 comment:
Oh my goodness, her ears WERE huge! Like I told you already, I know exactly what you're going through, and I'll be shedding my share of tears whenever that day comes with Sunset. In fact, you may have to come drag me out of the closet where I'll be sobbing with her stinky teddy bear (whom she has 'mothered' so much he's missing an eye, an ear, and most of his nose)! It's heartbreaking to have to stand there and watch your dog's life slip away, but it sure is better than watching them suffer while looking to you to make it better. I know you've seen this in my email signature block, but it's worth sharing again:
"Once someone has had the good fortune to share a true love affair with a Golden Retriever, one's life and one's outlook are never quite the same".
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