Marley

I know that some of you have read and giggled at my previous posts about my "old man" Marley the dog. He left us on Friday evening. No, he didn't wander off, we had to put him down. My hubby feels very crumby about it, and I know our other friend, Sugar misses him terribly. It was heart wrentching to see him decline so quickly over the past couple of weeks, and we knew it was time to be hummane about the dog.
He was our first living being together. We adopted him the year we were married, that was 15 years ago. He was a cute little playful thing, and never grew up. I will have to find a picture of him to post here. Hold on, let me go look. None stored on the computer, will have to look at "real" pictures to post one of him.
The boys were upset, Cassidy, in her 5 year old way, took it so matter of factly. We decided that it was a good idea to tell the boys ahead of time, so that they didn't get upset after the fact with us. SO that we didn't "murder" the dog. Patrick requested the collar, to keep. Request granted. My husband took him to the vet after work on Friday, but before he did, I took Cassidy and Daniel out of the house, and we went to wander aimlessly through some of hte local stores, just so that they wouldn't witness Scott taking the dog out to the car.
The vet said that Marley definately had signs of dimentia, the late night episodes, the water consumption, like he didn't realize he was even drinking. The accidents, ones that occured several times in a row, after being out for hours. He also mentioned a beginning of hip displaysia, that is why the poor thing couldn't stand or sit or lay down for long periods of time. This past week, he lost more weight, if that is at all possible, you could feel his spine, he developed an eye infection in both eyes, ws alomost blind, so it frightened him to let us clean him, and he was rapidly loosing hair. It was so sad. I make my piece with it early in the week, and had to convince my husband toward the end of the week. It took a lot of convincing. He almost didn't do it, at the last minute. I am sad that he did, but also glad that he made the right choice for the dog. Besides all of that, we didn't want the kids to see the dog suffer any more. It was a horrible thing for me, as an adult to watch, I cannot imagine what they were thinking. The real decline was over the past week. From Wednesday to Friday morning, the dog had 4 accidents, either on the carpet or on the tile, with no understanding that it was happening.
Well, think of my poor husband this week, he seems very wistful, distant, and sad. he has to make peace with our decision, and hasn't done that yet. That is all for now.
RIP Marley: 1991-2007