My friend Emily just lost her dog Heywood. She lives in Chicago and she brought Heywood out to MI once and Kia spent the weekend with Heywood at Emily's parents house a few months ago.
Here's the email I received:
So this break hasn't been that great so far.
Some of you knew my dog Heywood either from camping or from other stuff. He was getting old, but he was still doing all right. Then yesterday he just seemed to be more down than usual. He'd been to the vet two days before though and his lab work came back okay, so I wasn't too worried.
He was laying in his dog bed most of the afternoon and around 5pm I went to check on him and he was showing signs of being really sick. (White gums, dimished breath sounds, fast heart rate, shaking) I told my parents we needed to take him to the vet ER like 5 minutes ago. Heywood couldn't walk so we had to carry him. (He's a big dog - like 100 lbs)
At the vet they were able to stabilize him and even though he was sick they were pretty positive he was going to live out the night and they sent us home. They called a few hours later to tell me the results of some lab work and while we were on the phone Heywood stopped breathing. Given his age I'd signed a DNR for him, but I had the ridiculous notion that if I got off the phone and drove really fast, I could get there before he died.
Obviously I didn't make it in time.
He was the kind of dog you only meet once if at all and I don't know how I got so lucky. We had so many adventures together. When I lived in Washington we were part of Seattle Search and Rescue and the Delta Society (visiting sick kids in the hospital). He wasn't allowed on Mt. Rainier, but nearly every other peak I summitted he was right there with me and if it was winter he ran down in the track of my snowboard. He used to "own" part of Microsoft because he went to work with me everyday and at lunch he'd re-mark his territory around the building where I worked.
He lived his final years with my parents who came to love him as much as I do. I used to call this his "retirement home" even though he was still pretty active here.
I'm having him cremated so that we can scatter his ashes in some of our favorite places: the off-lead dog park, the local beach, and the next time I'm in Washington, the Cascade mountains.
Even though I knew this day was coming, I wasn't expecting it to be so sudden. And the strangest thing of all is that I always celebrated his birthday on Christmas because I brought him home from the shelter on Christmas eve in 1996.
I'm going to miss him.
-e
Here are a few pictures I have of him.
Heywood at the Bark Park in MI
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images...4/IMG_0830.jpg
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images...4/IMG_0832.jpg
Relaxing with Kia afterwards
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images...t/IMG_0863.jpg
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images...t/IMG_0875.jpg
Paws
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images...t/IMG_0866.jpg
We smell pizza!
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images...t/IMG_0843.jpg
The last time Andy, Kia and I saw Heywood... :(
Going for a walk in costume before the parade in Chicago.
http://www.cutestsandgirl.com/images...e/IMG_3019.jpg
Andy giving Heywood some love before we left.
http://www.cutestsandgirl.com/images...e/IMG_3120.jpg
We'll miss you Heywood. :( :(
