LOVE IS BLIND

Literally The Lar Par was the final straw for poor Miles, initially I thought he’d gone into congestive heart failure.  But his inability to breathe and age and heart disease made surgery too difficult for us to put him through.

The surprise in all of this was two weeks prior I had taken Miles to the cardiologist and ophthalmologist.  His heart disease had progressed but he wasn’t in heart failure yet.  And while his glaucoma was causing painful pressure we got him a on a regimen of drops that was controlling the pressure.  Then one fateful Wednesday evening he started coughing and when it became productive we took him to the emergency room.  That started a 4 day odyssey of ER’s and all day appointments.  One well intentioned doctor telling us this is probably it, then another telling me that he could undergo a very expensive surgery and would probably survive but not sure for how long or if the surgery would fix him.

This is where the tough part comes in, I always said I’d sell my car if I had to in order to do what was necessary.  I felt like it was my obligation and responsibility to take care of Miles no matter what.  That philosophy served us well for a long time and through numerous traumatic events.  But eventually like everyone else time was catching papa, he was starting to show signs of dementia.  Going into rooms in the back of the house looking for us and just standing there barking until we came to rescue him. Periodic bouts with incontinence nothing regular but it happened a few times so we’d rush home every day to make sure we could let him out.  Also his sleeping habits of waking me up at 2:30 every morning to go to the bathroom regardless of what time we went to bed.

Which in and of themselves these things didn’t detract from his quality of life in my opinion, and his tail still wagged every time he heard my voice.  The ultimate sign that I knew he was still in there is when I would sit or crouch in front of him and say his name he would give me a big kiss on the face. So the signs were starting but they hadn’t taken over, until those 4 fateful days when he was struggling to breathe.  Neither Heather nor I could stand to see him agonize like that and to have him die on an operating table in a place he didn’t know and without us there was not something I could live with.

So when it finally came down to us having to make that final decision to have him euthanized I wanted it to happen at home. I tried to take him home after a little sedation and got a block away and he was struggling to breath.  So I pulled into theKFC parking lot and climbed in back of the car totry and calm him down. It wasn’t working his breath was getting more and more labored so I texted Heather and told her she needed to meet me at the Vet in Tampa. I took him back the Vet and they came to the car and wheeled him back inside and took him to get oxygen.  While I was waiting this gave me time to find a vet who would come to our house. Ironically he name was Dr. Hart and her mobile practice is called Vet with a Hart. When Heather got there we met with the internist and talked about the decision and the desire to get him home.  He felt like he could get him safely sedated enough to get home. We got him sedated for the car ride as that stress triggered his respiratory distress.

He slept peacefully all the way home and we carried him inside into the bedroom.  He was out for a few hours, while Heather ran to the airport.  At home we could keep him stress free and relaxed.  So I scheduled for her to come to the house at 10 am Saturday morning.

Miles passed out after the last visit to the specialist.

Early Saturday morning after taking him outside I tried to keep him calm and quiet so as to not trigger a respiratory incident.