Colin

Colin’s last day

He hadn’t eaten in the morning for several weeks, but seemed to get his appetite back in the afternoon. The diuretics had kept his ascites at bay, but clearly there was still uncomfortable pressure, which seemed to ease as the day went on.

The last few weeks were the beginning of the end. He stopped eating his food and would only eat the fresh pet sausage, and then not that until a few days from the end, he liked a special steak treat that he ate with gusto. I found more and ordered foods like it, knowing that he would never need it.

And today, Simchat Torah was not looking good when I came to open the door to my studio. Even Bosco was subdued, and Colin was lying down, not really registering any excitement. I rubbed him down, and his demeanor softened, and I strapped up Amy and Bosco.

We made it down the stairs, and they all peed and pooped fast as soon as we hit the entrance to the woods. I thought, “Let’s turn around as they are done,” but they all were so happy, I just continued our route, and just at the end, Colin got wobbly and collapsed. I got him up, with my lifting his harness and him recovering a bit, we got home.

As we were getting ready to go upstairs, Kora the Akita and her human aunt came down the path. Kora is only friendly with my dogs and especially Colin. She saw something was wrong, and as soon as she saw this other dog pass by, she took off to chase it away, pulling her aunt away like a cartoon character.

We got up the stairs, and Colin just clunked down and looked very uncomfortable. I gave him his pills and tried to get him to eat. He wasn’t interested at all.
I fed the other two and got dressed.
We went to shul, and I thought he will either be better or dead.

He was neither, but he was not eating or drinking now, and he managed to move a few feet before lying down. I left him and read. Later that afternoon, I came down, and he was breathing hard and fast, and it looked as if his heart was racing and he was in pain. I found some meloxicyl in the medicine cabinet from Spike and squeezed a syringe of it into his mouth, hoping the pain might ease. I sat with him for a while until Amy came over and lay right next to him. I got up and decided to get some fresh air and left him in a little less distress with Amy.

I went into the woods and found myself walking towards the memorial to Spike to see how the maple was doing. I knew that this was Colin’s last day after I saw the maple was flourishing. My phone rang, and my wife told me Colin was dead. She just walked in around 6:15, which was barely 10 minutes since I left. Amy was still there guarding Colin when Heli returned and left after Heli checked Colin for life.