Early on Wednesday morning we had to make the difficult decision to put Heart down. Over the last year and a bit her health has had its ups and downs. We had a lump removed that turned out to be a Mast Cell tumour. Over the following year, there were three more Mast Cell tumours that popped up and were removed, and also the discovery of some suspicious tissue on her epiglottis which turned out to be pre-cancerous. None of this issues were life threatening, but certainly caused us stress. Recently Heart had a back issue that required some heavy medication, but she recovered.

A few days before our RV trip, her back issue popped up again, and although we treated it and she recovered, we quickly modified our trip plans to include Heart, rather that sticking her in the kennel as was originally planned. After the last lump was removed, she developed a stomach ulcer, which caused her to vomit quite a bit. We treated that easily enough with the human Pepcid AC.

During the trip Heart threw up a few times, and we treated with the Pepcid. Monday and Tuesday Heart was not well. On Tuesday Heart looked out of sorts, wasn’t really interested in food, but seemed quite thirsty. Unfortunately, anything she drank, she vomited back up a short time later.

We booked her into the vet for Friday, but as we went to bed Tuesday night, Heart was very restless, groaning a lot, and really wasn’t herself. At 1am Sue took her to the emergency animal hospital. The vet that saw her diagnosed a mass on her spleen, and we knew at that point we had to put her down. The vet gave Heart a sedative so she could come home for a quick good-bye and I had the difficult task of waking the kids and telling them the news.

It was heartbreaking telling them. The three of us had a good cry while we waited for Sue. Many tears were shed as Heart lay on her bed, all of us surrounding her, petting her, kissing her, hugging her saying our goodbye. I took Heart back to the clinic while Sue stayed with the kids. I said one last goodbye at the clinic while the vet did the procedure. Then she was gone.

I still tear up thinking about her, seeing pictures of her, and many times when I am reminded of her.

Some memories of Heart:

• She was scared of everything when we first got her
• Loved ear scratches
• Loved sunbeams and laying by a fire.
• Would always eat apples that had fallen off the tree
• Ate snow and ice when it was on the ground.
• Was always on the lookout for where the kids were
• Needed to have a toy in her mouth almost all the time
• Drank water like a camel (wouldn’t drink much throughout the day, then would nearly drain a dish in one go)
• Food thief. She loved bread products of all sorts
• When she was with me in my office while working, every day around 4 she would get up and nudge my arm constantly.
• Groaned and sighed in her sleep (as well as snored)
• Never really got into swimming
• When retrieving she would drop the ball somewhere along the way back, but expect us to throw it immediately again
• Long claws that she used when stepping on toes