First of all, let me give you a little history on Dante. My husband got Dante when he was 6 weeks old. He wasn't actually the puppy that Joe was originally suppose to get. Joe wasn't sure how he felt about this. The family went to Wal-Mart, Joe stayed in the car with Dante. As they were sitting there, Dante climbed in Joe's lap and licked his face. Needless to say, Joe fell in love!
Joe went through a lot of hard times in the next couple of years. Dante was always there for him. He was and is still his best friend. Joe and I got together in March of 2001. We didn't have Dante with us for the first year. Joe was totally lost. He would talk about all of the time they had spent together and all of the funny little things Dante could do. Joe told me that Dante would fetch your slippers, clean up papers on the floor, that every night Dante got a "nummy" bag and in the morning he would clean up his mess as well as many other things. Since I had never met Dante I was very skeptical. When I finally did meet Dante I was AMAZED! This had to be the smartest dog in the world! He was so loveable, very mellow, a friend you would never want to be without! For the past 3 years I have been a SAHM. I have been with Dante everyday. He would go everywhere with us, the store, to family dinners, he even came to our family reunion. He was never our "pet" and we were never his "owners", He was a member of our family.
Dante had been diagnosed with allergies a while back. He always had problems
with vomiting, he would get picky in his eating at times, but we always thought
it was just his allergies. We took him to see the vet somewhat regularly.
Not on a time schedule, but when he needed his shots or when he was sick.
We had taken him to see his doctor in April of this year. He was put on antibiotics
and sent home. At that time he weighed 108lbs. "BIG BOY"! :o) things seemed
to get back to normal. Around the middle of September, he got sick again (vomiting,
not eating, weight loss, bad breath, etc.), we made an appointment with his
doc and put him back on his allergy med's, he seemed to get better, so we
cancelled thinking it was just his allergies. About a week later he seemed
to get worse, (he wasn't eating, didn't have any energy, was really grouchy,
as well as the other things listed above.). We rescheduled his appointment
and kept it this time. On Oct. 6th we took him in, it was one of the worst
days of our lives. He had lost weight, he was down to 86lbs. We found out
that Dante had kidney failure, an irreversible disease in dogs. They told
us that they thought it was pretty far progressed and that there was little
hope. We brought him home and that night discussed what we were going to do.
We decided we would do whatever we could to help him. So, we took him back
in the next day and put him on IV fluids and antibiotics for a few days. The
IV's help to flush the toxins out of the system, (toxins build up when the
kidneys are not able to function properly). While Dante was in the hospital,
I got online and searched for anything I could find. I asked everyone on every
board if they had any info that would help us. I was very lucky to find a
site that is totally devoted to canines with kidney disease. There we could
get help form others going through the same things we were. Diets, medications,
supplements, tips and tricks on what worked and what didn't. This was a GOD
(DOG spelled backwards!) send! I had all of these questions and someone to
answer them and give us some hope! We got everything together so that we were
ready when Dante came home. We had the supplements, the special foods, any
information we needed was right at our fingertips! We thought we were ready
to fight and have as much time as possible with Dante. We had read stories
of others who had fought this terrible disease for several years. We brought
him home on that Sunday (Oct. 10th) he seemed to be in better spirits. The
doctor said that clinically he was doing much better. Gave us more hope! The
first day he ate a little, but that ended pretty quickly. He wasn't eating
or drinking and he was vomiting all the time. We tried everything we could
find. Gave him all of the med's and supplements suggested. We took him in
on the 16th to have his blood checked again. It had went way higher and his
blood pressure was up. That night I spent 3 hours on the phone with a wonderful
woman I met through the K9kidneys web site. She gave me a ton of info and
we were ready to go the next day to really aggressively attack this disease.
When we got up Sunday (Oct.17th) morning, Dante was in really bad shape. After
many tears and much contemplation, Joe came to me and said we were going to
call the vet to take Dante in and have him put to sleep. He was just suffering
so much. God, the pain. I never knew how important a part of the family a
dog could be! Joe called the vet and we started to get things ready to go.
Joe went out to take care of Dante. He talked to him and tried to clean him
up a little. When Joe told Dante that it was ok, he wasn't going to suffer
anymore, Dante peacefully died in Joe's arms. He took that decision out of
our hands. He knew how difficult it was for us. It was one of the greatest
gifts he ever gave us.
I know some of you are wondering why I'm writing this. Since our loss, I have tried to do everything I can to educate as many people as possible. I don't ever want to see another person go through what we have been through. I know I can't prevent it, but if I can help one person find something soon enough to give them more time with their beloved best friend, then that's all I ask. Please take your pet yearly to have a blood test done. Every 6 months would be better, but at least yearly. I believe it is worth the little bit of money and time it will cost, if it is going to prevent or postpone the pain of loss.
As time and emotions allow, we are going to add other stories and photo's of Dante and links to different web sites that give you information and support to get through any type of illness you may be or in the future may have to deal with. Please, please hug your pet, tell them you love them and take them to the vet! Also tell everyone you know how important it is that they take their pet in.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for allowing me to do what I need to do to heal.
