Truer words were never spoken as in the last line of my last
article. “Toby would not be with us much
longer”. He was given a diagnosis of
lymphoma and less than a month to live.
I mistakenly thought we would get that month, but such was not to be the
case. Toby literally started slipping
downhill the day of the diagnosis.
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| MY FAVOURITE PHOTO HE LOOKS SO REGAL |
After that though it happened quickly. By the next day, when we went out for the
morning walk, Toby went only as far as the trail where he did his
business. He completely stopped eating,
which made giving him his medication impossible. We did put it in some very soft critical care
food the vet gave us. He did eat that
but spit the pills out. His throat was
too swollen to take the tack of pushing the pills down there.
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| ANOTHER FAVOURITE JUST PURE JOY IN THE SNOW |
He did start to rally a little bit by Wednesday, when he ate
a half of a small breast of chicken, dosed with his liquid medicine. Getting some food into his belly seemed to
brighten him up a bit, but by now he was having such difficulty walking, it was
heartbreaking. It was a sad week
watching him slip away. If he was in
real pain, it didn’t seem to be showing, but he was stumbling and
staggering. He seemed confused and would
bump into things.
Toby has never been a big fan of the rain. He would go out for walks or when he was younger,
for his runs in the park. In a lot of
cases though, if you opened the door and he saw the rain, he would literally
turn around and go back to bed. So, we
would wait until the rain slowed down enough that he would go out, or he had to
pee so bad that he could not hold it anymore.
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| TOBY LOOKS SO SERIOUS |
The dog was like a camel.
He would sometimes take his last pee of the day at 5:00 PM and then hold
it in until in some cases 10:00 the next morning. It was amazing, really. In any case this was a long prelude to
Thursday night. It was raining and
raining hard. At 7:30 PM Toby wanted to
go outside. He went out the sliding door
and flopped down with his back towards the door. There is a slight overhang and it was a
little bit dry there.
As anyone who sleeps does, during the night he shifted
position and was lying in the middle of the deck, in the middle of the pouring
rain. He didn’t care. I finally convinced him to come inside at
9:30 PM and wrapped him in his towel. He
was finally mostly dry by 11:30 PM, but then he wanted to go back outside. Again, he flopped down on the deck. It was raining even harder and only 3 degrees
Celsius. It was just flat out a cold and
miserable night.
He seemed comfortable, even if he was soaked. His breathing which was so laboured inside
seemed to ease. He was breathing
easily. Long and slow deep breaths. So, I made the decision to let him
sleep. Well he made the decision. No amount of cajoling, petting or treats
would convince him to come in. So, I
made the choice of leaving the patio door open and I snuggled under the quilt
and fell asleep in my recliner. He
stayed outside the entire night. First
time in his life with us he had done that.
Although, when he was a puppy, that was his life. His first owners left him chained up and
outside.
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| MY 95 POUND LAP DOG |
It seemed to help. At
9:30 AM, I finally managed to get him inside and he quickly ate a half breast
of chicken cut up into tiny pieces. I
again got him dry, but by 11:30 AM he was back outside lying in a puddle in the
pouring rain. He would not even
acknowledge my voice or being touched.
This rain, which had now gone on for more than a month, with only the occasional
break, was relentless. It poured all
day. By this time, it was more than 24
hours since he had last peed. Renee
arrived at 5:30 Friday evening and when he heard her voice he raised his head
and gave her lots of kisses on the cheek.
We knew by this point that it was all over for our big pal and made the
extremely difficult decision to have him euthanized.
In the morning we phoned the vet and made an appointment for
2:30 PM. We allowed an hour to be able
to get him in the truck and get there. I
moved the truck to the visitor parking behind my place. Toby had made it down the ramp and had a huge
pee and then collapsed against the fence at 7:30 AM and remained there until it
was time to leave. He just couldn’t make
it up the ramp again.
He very bravely managed to stagger over to the truck, with a
lot of assistance from Renee. He had to
lie down and rest three times in that short distance. He struggled to get up the ramp and into the
truck and with the assistance of our neighbour, Tyler Clark, we got Toby into
the back-seat area. During the drive he
even managed to get to his feet, so he could put his head between us and look
out the window. I wonder if he knew?
We got to the vet and Toby struggled down the ramp. This was the first and last time we used the
ramp for him to get out of the truck. We
were early and so we just sat in the truck petting Toby. All to soon it was time. We went inside. Toby showed no reluctance, he was just having
trouble walking. He never hesitated to
go into the any vet, or the groomers in his life. Once inside things moved rapidly. Renee and the vet assistance lifted Toby onto
the table, on his favourite blanket that we brought with us.
The vet came in and shaved Toby’s front left leg. He gave him an injection of sedative into his
butt and Toby began to drift off. The
vet put an IV tube in his “arm” and asked us if he should give the
injection. We both said yes, and it was
done. Toby took four or five more
breaths and then he was gone. It was
very calm, and very peaceful. No gasping
for breath, he just went to sleep.
When we got home, alone for the first time. Renee and I did our regular morning walk,
even though it was now 3:30 PM. We
called it, “The Toby Walk”, and it was a tribute to him. It was strange doing it without him and we
were stopped quite a few times by neighbours and other dog walkers who were
used to seeing us and all asked where he was.
All were told the sad news.
Once home I posted, basically an obituary for Toby on my
Facebook page and the second I hit the send button, the tributes and expressions
of sympathy came pouring in. It was
extremely satisfying to know that so many people who had known him, were sad to
see him go. It was a fitting final
chapter to his life.
Toby Gowdyk Born March 10, 2006. Died February 3, 2018.
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