Princess Luna Bucket of Hope

Friday morning (12-12-08) my dad came into my room at about 8:30am and said, "Mijita do you have the number to the vet - I think Luna is dying? I went out and it took forever for her or Duke to come to the patio, then I saw Luna come around the corner and she was walking really slowly and her breathing was labored. I put on some gloves and stuck my hand down her throat to see if maybe she was choking on something, but I didn't find anything. Her stomach is inflated and hard."

So I decided that if my dog was going to die then I need to get out of bed, even though I had fallen asleep at about 6am, because she is MY dog and I have to be there for her. I got my butt out of bed and got dressed. Before I went outside, though, dad was on the phone with the vet and after explaining everything to them they asked if we could bring her in 30 mins and he said yes.

We got her into dad's truck and headed over to the vet's office. I'd say we got there at 9am and they didn't see her til almost 10. They took 2 xray's and they confirmed that it was GDV, or bloat. Her tummy had bloated and flipped, I suppose, a full 360degrees. The vet proceeded to tell us that she needed emergency surgery, but they don't do the surgery in that office often. They usually send animals to a specialist... the thing, though, was the specialist didn't work on Fridays. He said they would try to get ahold of the specialist and see if they could get him to go into his office. While they were gone, my dad and I tried to get ahold of my mom to tell her what was going on because she was at work. She was in meetings all day so I had to have someone pull her out of the meeting and then I had to text her the info as the vet informed us. The vet said that the surgery with the specialist would cost $3500-5000!!!! With them it'd be about $1500-2000, but they don't do it very often. He said they could go ahead and do the surgery, which consists of them opening her up, unflipping the stomack and tacking it to the sides so that it doesn't flip again in the future. But, most times they open up the animal and some vital organs have started to die from lack of blood flow because when the stomach flips, it pinches a vein and cuts off the blood flow. Then he said, "About half of the dogs we open up end up dying on the table." Part of what dad and mom discussed was if it was more than they could afford, did she want to consider the "other option". It wasn't just the money that led all of us (mainly my parents lol) to the decision we made... the odds were against her. She was 10 years old, which isn't old, but it isn't young. She had heart worms, or at least she had had them at her last visit for which we treated her for, but we weren't sure if they were gone. We hadn't had a chance to take her in to see if they were gone. She also had had a tumor removed when she was younger and she had 2 new ones - I'm not sure how big they were. So we really weren't positive that she'd even come out of the anesthesia. She was obviously in a lot of pain and terribly unhappy so the decision to have her put down was made......

I was SOOOOO not ready for that.

Even though "I think Luna's dying" is one of the first things dad told me that morning, I didn't think it was as serious as it was until we were at the vet.

The vet asked if we wanted to be present and we told him yes, and he gave us some time alone with her and we had to contact mom again and tell her. After I talked to my mom and cried I figured I should call my younger brother, Luis. I knew he'd be asleep because I talked to him the night before and he was going to work 11pm-7am, but I called him and woke him up to tell him. I told him that I'd put the phone to Luna's ear so he could say goodbye to her, and I did. The vet came in with the syringe and they shaved a bit of fur off of her front paw. She was facing the wall, and there was a bit of space between the table and the wall so I wedged myself in there and was petting the top of her head and trying not to cry, I was the last face she saw. It was quick and, I assume, painless. She just stopped breathing and after the vet was done, he checked her with the stethoscope, and told my dad and I that she was gone. Oh, my dad was on the side of the table petting the top of her back. I started crying because now that she couldn't see me, it was ok. The vet leaned down and gave me a hug (he's a really nice guy - he's seen our kittens and the litter of puppies who had parvo) and shook my dad's hand, then he gave us a few minutes to be alone with her. It was weird... she wasn't there anymore, but her body was.... Death weirds me out - I'm not scared, but I half expect things to jump or make noises LOL Minor phobia?

Anyhow - I didn't cry much after it was done... it was all so unbelievable. I think even now it still hasn't sunk in that she's gone. I didn't go into the yard much, which now I wish I had... but I can't dwell on the coulda woulda shoulda's. She knew I loved her. I saved her life when she was little for Pete's sake! Long story short she was a pup in a litter we had of younger pups, and we also had a few from a litter of older pups. I heard a puppy crying and went out and it looked like she was stuck in between the two 5 gallon buckets of water that we used to have for our dogs' water. The male we had back then, Sultan, liked to dump the buckets over and cover the patio in water. I went to pull her out from between the buckets and she wouldn't budge. I moved one bucket and noticed it was on top of both her back paws, and it had cut to the bone. Dad said that she'd have to be put to sleep... I pitched a fit! "If I had a cut on my arm that was to the bone you wouldn't have ME put to sleep... you'd have it stitched up and it'd heal." So my dad stitched up her paws HIMSELF and bandaged it. We went out of town for my grandparent's 50th anniversary and when we came back a couple weeks later she was fine. I asked dad if I could have her and he said yes! (He did say the next day we should try to sell her, but he had already told me yes LOL) I named her Princess Luna Bucket of Hope ;) The rest is history....

She was a great dog and I will miss her SO MUCH. She was my sweetie. Two years ago when 3 new puppies ransacked HER yard after she had been alone for about 7 years, she became the Alpha female and I think was pretty stressed. Now she's in peace with her momma :)

The amazing thing to me, is the night she passed was the night that the moon was it's biggest and brightest in 15 years! It's amazing because her name is Luna which is 'moon' in Spanish :)

GOOD NEWS THOUGH!!!

Duchess, mom's sweet doggie, is in labor as I type. We should have a few new puppies in our backyard by day's end tomorrow... it'll be a LONG night, but I'm ready! She's so cute! I'll be taking a ton of pictures. I'm so ready to have puppies because I'm still so sad about Luna. I love doggies :D Expect puppy pics soon!

I need to address and send out my Christmas cards, hopefully tomorrow. I think I'll start tonight, unless I can't bring myself to leave Duchess' side ;-)

Lots of hugs! - and thanks for all of the hugs given to me Friday.

**Adriana**