in the middle of december we took demeter, jewel and dooley to the vet for what we thought would be unremarkable annual check-ups for jewel and demeter and for a recheck of a large laceration carley inflicted on dooley’s flank. at that point i thought my biggest worry was whether dooley’s butt was going to heal okay. we walked out of the vet broken-hearted after finding out that demeter had a large mass in her colon and probably a few weeks to live. an ultrasound a few days later didn’t deliver any better news. we took her to our holistic vet for some antioxidants and herbs hoping to make her as comfortable as possible for as long as possible. the news was a bit hard to swallow as other than some constipation she was exhibiting no symptoms and to that point she seemed an incredibly vital, happy 14-year-old dog. i can say we enjoyed about a month of her continuing to show that vitality but on tues that ended and we said goodbye to our sweet demeter yesterday.
this has been a rough month for us and we’re hoping for some sunny days (literally and figuratively) ahead. demeter’s passing has left a large hole in our family – i’m sitting here feeling incredibly lonely even though at this moment i’m surrounded by a husband and 14 fantastic dogs (or more accurately 12 fantastic dogs and 2 rotten ones).
i know i’ve been very slack on my blogging these past weeks and the posts i have written have not been the light-hearted dog stories i’d like them to be but after a few days to regroup i hope to be back posting more regularly.