And Then It Was Just Time...

So.. Thursday I came home at lunch and found Ozzy hadn't moved since I'd left that morning. I got down in the floor and talked to him, he wasn't interested in getting up. The Amazon came over and scratched behind his ear, then recoiled in horror as he went in to a seizure.

I hoped it was a one time thing. He had seemed to be doing so much better. His leg was healing, he was getting friskier every day. Just the night before he'd been in the kitchen, trying to steal leftovers off the stove. I told the Amazon to call the vet, see if maybe it was a reaction to the new pain medication. I went back to work, but she called me about an hour later, crying and telling me he'd just had another seizure.

I totally lost control of my emotions at work. I told Bossman, he put his arm around me and told me to just go and not worry about it. If I hadn't been so upset, I probably would have fainted from shock.

Ozzy wouldn't get up, he couldn't move much at all. We lifted him with the sheets he'd been laying on and carried him to the truck, stopping about four times on the way when I started to lose my grip. Somewhere in the process I pulled something in my back.

After chest x-rays and blood tests, we decided it was time to stop trying. Sometime overnight he'd crashed, turned a corner and started towards the point of no return. Every vet in the practice who'd taken part in his care over the past month or so, came in to say goodbye and to tell us we'd done a good job with him. They let us pet him and talk to him as they put him down.

We decided to have him cremated, I couldn't bear thoughts of the Scary Hillbilly Town city dump and the Amazon, as we made the decision of what to do, looked at me and said, "Mama, that's a big hole to dig."

Now there's a big new dog lot in the back yard that Ozzy never saw and a bright, shiny new dog house, with windows, that he never got to try. They'll stay there until the time is right. They won't stay empty forever.

I slept in my own bed for the first time in forever Thursday night, but I had to leave the t.v. on. And even though Sammy had his butt scootched up against my back, I still caught myself reaching down to pat Ozzy's back in the middle of the night.

Right now, it's hard, but me and the Amazon know we did what we could. It was just time. Now if ya'll will excuse me, I'm gonna go hug the stuffins out of a certain Boston Baked Beagle.

Ya'll have a good one.



Later Taters.