A Loss

My last post was entitled "Still Alive and Kicking". 

Little did I know that the very next day, I would lose this little girl. 

I adopted Fritzi last year, three months after I had lost Lilly, 

who had grown up here at Calamity Acres. 

Fritzi was one of three dogs, all older... whose mama sat 

down in her recliner one day and passed away.  One dog was so old 

as to be unadoptable (ill health).  The other two were placed with a foster by a local rescue. 

Fritzi's sister, Dotte, had already been placed when she came through 

my Facebook feed.  (and crossed the bridge three months ago). 

Jester and I went to meet her, and I fell in love with her little "one ear up, one ear down" 

face. 

She was not a cuddler, but she always wanted to be near me, and padded around the house to wherever I was.  She was also the BEST watchdog, nothing escaped her eye and certainly not her hearing and smelling. 

She was a barker, where the other two are not. 

I would sit in the recliner and read (snooze) in the afternoon, and Fritzi was always close. 

She loved my son, too, if he walked in, she was all cuddles and squeals. 

In March this year, she became very sick.  She spent five days at a very expensive 

ER specialty hospital, and was diagnosed with diabetes, and later, with Cushing's disease. 

Around mid-summer, she went blind. 

We got used to the daily routine of shots morning and evening, but we were never

able to adjust to the "twelve-hours apart feedings".  The blindness was another thing, 

as she constantly bumped into things, and broke my heart.  She did learn to turn left

off the front door step, and was able to cross the porch to the east, get down the three steps, potty, and then for some reason, she would go around the deck and come up the south side, until she was 

having difficulty doing that.  We put a ramp in, but it was not soon enough, she did not learn to use it before the blindness set in all the way. 

By Sunday the 15th, she was in a bad way, and I did not realize she was 

suffering from low blood sugar, and I am diabetic, I should have. 

Monday morning, I rushed her to the vet, she was in her final throes.... and the vet 

thankfully helped her cross the bridge as I held her close to me. 

This one hit me hard, even though I had only had her sixteen months. 

Within a week, this one got sick: 

The vet did a very careful exam, and discovered soreness along the spine. 

He also noticed definite soreness above the right eye.  He ran a senior panel. 

We started pain meds. 

Two weeks later, she was very bad again, and I took her back in, 

and he did another panel... she was holding her own, but he gave me 

meds for vomiting and I really changed the way she is eating (it helped). 

He examined her again, and he thinks what has happened is that 

the cancerous tumor taken off her mammary gland in August had already spread. 

The cost of an MRI is prohibitive, and frankly, it would be done if there 

was any hope of a surgery, but... she is seventeen and a half.  He believes the tumor 

is above her right eye.  

Snowy had a grand mal seizure at 1:45 AM in bed with me.  It was scary, but 

I knew enough not to touch her, but just spoke reassuringly.  The vet told me 

they do not realize they are seizing.  

She continued having small seizures, for instance, on Thanksgiving she 

was laying on the couch across from me, and her head would jerk suddenly and hard. 

I took my phone to the vet's office the next morning and he looked at them and then 

looked at me and said "Those are hurting her". 

So..... she is taking Keppra for the seizures, three half pills a day. 

She has gabapentin in the morning and evening, for pain. 

So far... so good.  Except for two days when her tummy was upset and she vomited 

over and over, she has been much better.  We now have Cerenia in the house for 

vomiting. 

This morning, she took advantage when I opened the pasture gate to fill the water fortex there 

to shoot past me and take off down the pasture.  I can't trust her, she has selective hearing, and sure enough, (I followed her), when she got to the bottom of the pasture she tried to go through the fence twice.  I had to carry her back up. 

She has become much more affectionate, and likes to come across the couch to where my recliner is, jump into the recliner, see me for a minute while I scritch her, then jump back to the couch where she has two big comfortable pillows to lay on.  (these jumps are inches apart) 

Once in a while, she will lay on my chair next to me for a while. 

She has become cuddly with Jester, too. 

Jester, my Goodest Boy.... he is my rock, the one I always depend on. 

And... Spot the Cat has been spending days and nights here lately... though I have come 

to believe he actually has a family somewhere around here. 

He does NOT like this guy: 

That's Ben, who works in the yard for me .... 
Ben came yesterday to put Santa together and tie him to the deck. 

I'll show you some changes made to the deck and some other things happening around here in my next post. 

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, as good as could be expected in this crazy year. 

I pray everyone has stayed safe, and will continue to do so. Forgive me for the sad post, I just had to talk about little Fritzi again.