Tiki passed away Oct 13th. As some of you might now, I just moved from the Faroes to the US and brought my two dogs with me. Unfortunately, Tiki did not make it. I had learned just shortly before I was to leave that her heart was failing and that is most likely what killed her. The stress of traveling probably caused a heart attack. I don't know the exact details though. The airline did offer to do an autopsy but after I learned that she was dead, the last thing I wanted to think about is somebody cutting open her dead body.
It was probably a very irresponsible thing to do, to still decide to put her through all of this traveling despite her condition. But that's the decision I made. I did ask the vet directly if he would recommend I just have her put down immediately, or if I should bring her along and he said there was no reason to expect her to die since she really was in good health otherwise. So yeah... I dunno. On one hand I, of course, feel very guilty about the way she died but on the other hand I know that I most likely would not have been able to live with having her put down when she was relatively ok and then constantly thinking afterwards: "what if she would have made it here?"
... anyway. I just felt like telling someone. I still don't think I've totally processed it and accepted it. I've been so busy thinking about a million other things that it hasn't really started to settle in yet.
I only have Taggart now. I re homed Leo since we couldn't have more than 2 pets, so that also makes me sad but at least I know that he's alive and happy.
She really was the best dog ever. 12 and a half years we spent together. I was just 14 when I got her so that's almost half my life I spent with her. She was my first dog and I'll readily admit that I did billions of mistakes raising her. But somehow she was able to forgive me for that. She was so smart and such a quick learner. I taught her lots of tricks and everybody was always so impressed... but really she taught me more than I could ever have taught her. I'll miss her so much.
Tiki
Feb 23rd 1998 - Oct 13th 2010
A video of her showing the tricks she knew. Animal Planet contacted me not long ago, asking me to submit this video to one of their shows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VKCXWmskfQ
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