Sadie goes to the Vet

SADIE

Today was different, dramatic and probably will be repeated in similar ways in our future. We took Sadie to the truck and began the process to get her into the back seat we had prepared for her. She does not like to get into a vehicle. I was on one side of the truck holding the leash and Eddie was on the other side picking up her front feet and then picking up her hind legs to put her in, which upon having all four feet inside she promptly tried to by pass me out the door. After a breath taking struggle I closed the door and then she proceeded to try and push her head between the door and the front seat before I could close my door. Finally air conditioner on high dog incarcerated in back seat we are on our way to the veterinarian.

I had a sheet drawn across the back of the front seats and this kept her from drooling down our necks as previously happened when we brought her home for the first time in our car. With cool air going over the top and from my side down past my door she soon settled down.

We arrived and while Eddie went to get the truck inspected because we noticed passing a policeman that the tags were due in 2012 but the inspection sticker expired in March. Oh! Me!

She instantly took to the young receptionist and when Dr. Taylor walked in she did not give him a thought either. We took her in the examining room and she weighed in at a whopping 93 pounds. The girl petted her and she laid down and rolled over on her back and Dr. Taylor scratched her tummy as we talked. He said he thought by looking at her teeth that she was at least five years old and maybe six. He also said that this size dog had a life expectancy of about eight to ten years. I believe the girl prepared about five shots which would bring her up to date on all vaccinations. Dr. Taylor put a band around her leg and took some blood then took her temperature. All the while I am asking him about what he thinks of her and telling him about Eddie and his unusual immediate attachment to the dog. I told him we both were concerned about her until she was given a clean bill of health.

Sadie did not like the rectal exam but she never flinched over any of the shots. Dr. Taylor walked over to the desk and when he turned around the look on his face prepared me for what was coming. Why in my wildest imagination had it never occurred to me what could possibly be wrong with a dog this age? He had listened to her heart, done all of the examination and never did the smile leave his face.

As I gazed into his eyes waiting, he shook his head and said, “heartworms.” Not a sound, just a cold hard punch hit me in the stomach. It was as if I were sitting before a doctor and he said she has cancer. What is the matter with me? We have had the dog a week. She is not a human. As he began to speak I called Eddie who had come back and was actually sitting in the front. Eddie, who never comes in but sits in the truck till I come out, who had said, “hold her tight don’t let her get loose” as I got out of the truck, who never seems to get attached to animals.

He stood in the doorway as the doctor explained that she was old. The treatments might work but with her age they also had some risks. Again, it was as if he and I were in a doctor’s office and the verdict of cancer was passed to us about one of our loved ones. The look of concern and yes pain was all over his face. We both listened carefully and when he finished talking with us. Eddie asked him several questions and we made a decision and prepared to leave.

It was all I could do to stand there and pay the bill and not begin crying. I told Dr. Taylor I would cry when I got outside and he said do it out there and not in here. We all laughed.

It is all very dramatic in my mind because this is not me and Eddie. We don’t get this emotional over animals. Not on the outside anyway. Well, I do but not him.

So May 31, 2011 Sadie was given a death sentence. She may live her allotted years with care because she has not yet shown symptoms but then if the treatment we have chosen does not prolong her life then she may have her life shortened. I can assure her that Eddie and I will love her and she will be our dog until that happens. And if I sound foolish and dramatic then so be it. It hurts and I was ignorant to not have thought about the obvious. We have always kept our dogs on heart worm medicine so it just never occurred to me.