Goodbye Caineal

One sunny day last August, I decided to walk home from work. It takes about an hour. On this day, I took lots of wrong turns (actually didn't turn where I should have) and came across this small dog lying on the sidewalk with another dog pacing by her. I stopped because the dog was lying funny and looked like it needed help. I pet her head and she barely lifted it. She didn't make a sound.

I phoned my friend M to ask for another mate's number since L's sister was a vet. I wanted to phone to see what I should do. L didn't answer her phone so I called M back and she came and got us. By this time, the dog with the sick one had run away and other people were there to help us.

Ok, I knew nothing of dogs. I hadn't had one growing up and until recently I was afraid of them. In my world, small dogs are puppies and large dogs are, well dogs. So I told M that I found a puppy that I thought was a labrador. This is the only breed I have had much interaction with. So, she brought a box to put the "puppy" in. Well, she noticed the grey muzzle and teased me a bit in the car. I didn't notice it because the dog didn't lift her head at all and I was in "get this dog to the vet mode" and was looking at her hips more because I thought that she had been hit by a car and didn't seem to be able to walk. She winced whenever I tried to move her hips.

So, M gets to where I am and the people who stopped to help help me get the dog under my jacket and a blanket so that we could carry her to the car in a type of sling. We take her to the vet.

I called the next day and they told me that she is a 8-10 year (later thought to be about 14) old Terrier mix. She had a heart murmur but all her bloods were fine and she seemed to be in good health considering how underweight and malnourished she was. If I didn't adopt her, they were going to call animal control and she would be put to sleep in 5 days if nobody claimed her. I adopted her and named her Caineal, the Irish for cinnamon since she was a pretty brown (and I am obsessed with Cinnamon).

During the rest of the summer and into autumn, we would go on long walks to St. Stephan's Green after I got home from work. Whenever we got to the park, she would prance and her ears would perk up even more. She loved her long walks. Even though she was old, she'd sometimes chase the cat around the apartment and play with some toys. She liked to chase her ball. She also loved her treats. At times they were the only things that she would jump for. She also hardly ever barked, unless Darshin was tormenting her or getting near her stuff. In other words, she was an incredibly sweet dog. She even tolerated me picking her up and carrying her around and putting her on the bed even though until about a month or two ago didn't like to cuddle.

During the winter, her heart got worse and we tried a lot of different medications and I changed vets to one who would do objective tests on her. She had ups and downs and would lose consciousness and bladder control at times. The medicines usually helped, though (aspirin worked the best). The last couple days, she hadn't been eating and was barely drinking. Her tail didn't wag when outside. Her ears didn't perk up and she hardly walked. This morning I found her lying half on, half off the couch when I got out of the shower. It looked like she tried to get off the couch but couldn't and had lost bladder control.

I called John and then took her to the vet. The vet agreed that she "had the look of a sad dog" and since she was hardly moving, that it was humane to put her to sleep. He said it looked like she had just given up. So, he sedated her and then injected her with the other stuff to make her heart stop. It only took a few minutes and she seemed quite peaceful. I think that she knew. She slept in the bag that I carried her in almost the whole way to the vet (she NEVER does this and hated being in the bag). She also slept on my lap while waiting in the vets office. She had never curled up on my lap before. She was completely listless when at the vet (and all the way to it).

So, here are some pictures of our little girl. Goodbye Caineal. We loved you a lot even though we only had a few months with you!