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My first day in my new home!

Rufus crossed to the rainbow bridge today

Rufus' health had been declining. We put him on various meds to help plus we started giving him sub-Q I.V. But after a few weeks he hadn't improved and then had a seizure. However I still believed there was a bit of hope, and decided to to give him at least another 24hrs.

The vet checked him and believed it was a seizure vs a stroke and added phenabarbatol (sp) to help with the seizures. But that night wasn't good. We decided to keep him in the big showcraite to limit his pacing. He would also walk up to a wall and stare at it, tail wagging. We would need to help him back up, and I need to carry him up and down the 2 stairs to the outside so he could pee.

He would stumble about seeming happy (but was probably just dazed), pee then want to go back in.

this would happen about every 2 hours, I made the decision we had clearly moved from the grey area into the black.

We brought him to the vets about 12pm, I wish I could say it was "easy", but Rufus was my lovely shadow, my faithful friend in every room, I was never alone. I used to joke that if I didn't know that dog loved me so much I'd swear he was trying to kill me.

I'm going to miss his noises, he was a very vocal dog. making a 'humpf" noise and burping, I'd never had a dog that burped so much. I can't believe he's gone.

getting old is no picnic!

Update 5/10/2007 - our Ru-ru was diagnosed with the onset or arthitis this wk, he is on pain meds and rest. I've added glucosimine (sp?) to his diet also. But being the ray of sunshine he is full of cuddles. Since he is on 'rest' I take him out front so he can watch the world go by and get out of the house.