How Kody Left Us

Written on 7-4-26.

        Happy 4th Of July and Happy Semi-Quincentennial!  Wow!  250 years of America.  How long will this experiment live on?  

We are back at the cabin again for another big celebration, and everyone is here, at least all of the normal characters.  We have some other guests here as well.  Debbie and her daughter Kacie sp? are here today.  Grandma Arrou came up for today only, too, and Char is here, but I would consider her more of a regular.  She just walked by with one of those water bladder things on her back.  She must have filled it up at the river.  She said she planned to go for a hike to Lake Eileen.

  *I stepped away, because the RC firefighter boat I bought on Amazon for $60.00 got crushed in Indie’s jaws.  Ha!  No big deal.  It was bound to happen.  If you play with Kyle’s dogs, eventually you’ll get the jaws of death.  Kyle was chasing Paws and Indie and squirting them with the little firehose, and Indie turned on on it.  Significant hull damage was done with her sharp, little teeth, but I think it has a chance for a recovery.  Good ol’ duct tape.

We just gave our kids...

the last of the inheritance money that we received from Mom and Dad.  This money was reserved for fun this time around.  They were very grateful, and we all hugged.  It was a poignant moment made even more emotional after Kody's sudden passing.  

Back to Kody… I loaded him into the back of our truck, and we drove to Durango.  He had increased labored breathing, and I could hear breathy squeaks coming from behind me.  When I pulled him out again, he was stiff and mostly non-responsive.  Belinda cried when she saw this, and she kept repeating through her tears, “No, oh, no!”

They took him in early, to their credit.  We had arrived 20 minutes ahead of our appointment.  Belinda filled out the required paperwork.  We chose to leave the part about whether to resuscitate or not blank.  We didn’t know how bad off he truly was.  I felt hopeful, but I was realistic.

When the vet spoke to us, he was wondering if we had tried to get him in earlier.  We both thought he sounded a bit accusatory.  We explained that we had, but they couldn’t get us in; we had to settle for an appointment the next day at 11:30.  We also talked about the problems he had recently, and that he was on a recently increased dose of Prednisone.

All of this didn’t matter.  He informed us that he had an extremely high temperature, and that might have come from brain swelling due to a tumor?  He couldn’t be sure, though, of course.

Finally, I said, “Are you trying to tell us that we should put him down?”

I’m paraphrasing, but it was something like that, and he said it would be best.  He said he could have cardiac arrest at any moment.  B and I agreed.  It wasn’t too bad of a shock, because I had readied myself after the first two rounds of his struggles.  It was still difficult to hear and understand those words and that you are accepting saying goodbye to your beloved dog.

He was nearly eight years old and very young.  We walked him twice daily, and he was on a very healthy diet.  What happened?  It doesn’t matter now.

They asked if we wanted to be with him, and we said we did.  We had done this dance before many years ago with Desi.  We tried to save Zen by driving to Dr. Baker's office, too, but that was futile.  Dogs enrich our lives and then they leave us…too early.  Even the ones who live longer lives.

We didn’t even end up doing that (having him put down in the room), though.  He came back in a rush and said he thought he was passing right then.  Belinda and I hurried to the back and gave him comfort, and then he was gone.  The nurse said, “We will help you along,” and that gave me comfort.  They gave him the drugs to help him relax and pass more easily.

What a great, sweet, intelligent animal Kody was.  I was thankful, because I knew we had taken so many pictures and videos of him.  Belinda reminded me that we would honor him with a dedication on our upcoming Prezi.  Sigh.  I am forlorn.  My heart hurts; it will hurt for a long time.  Reminders are everywhere, and I actually said, “Come on, Kody,” to Ekko when we took him for a walk here this morning.

This too shall pass.  Like a kidney stone.

Until next time…