re: Do you bury your dogs?

Last year, my Shepard was poisoned. For two weeks, he was in outpatient care. I dropped him off every morning for IV fluids and picked him up in the evenings. He wouldn’t eat and was wasting away.

I picked him up on Thursday evening from the vet’s and we went to Walmart for a rotisserie chicken. He finally ate. We were so excited and felt sure he was finally going to turn this thing around.

I dropped him off Friday morning (December 22nd) for his fluids and told the doc, “he finally ate!” She was excited too. I went to pick him up that evening. They would wait for me to get there before they pulled his IV. Doc came out and told me to come see. After they removed his IV, he collapsed. They pulled a large amount of fluid from his abdomen. He couldn’t get up. I knew.

I tried to sound calm when I called my wife but she knew and immediately went into hysterics. She came running in the office and fell on the floor next to him. We both just sat there and cried. I was finally able to get my wife back in her vehicle and told her I would be home soon.

The doctor gave him the injection and I loaded his limp body back in the Jeep. The wife and kids sat with him while I went to work on his grave. We put his bed in the bottom of the hole, laid him down and covered him with “his” towel. I pulled his gifts out from under the tree and put them in there with him too.

We don’t know what he was poisoned with. The only thing we could think was a Lantana bush that had sprouted up behind the shop. Some days, I wish I would have gotten the autopsy.