Agnes, her last journey

Above photo is one of Agnes demolishing one of her toys.

This is a very hard blog to write. This evening Agnes was put to sleep. We are all devastated, we thought she was improving and showing more energy and life with every day that passed. But she was also finding it harder to walk.

This noon Bella, Agnes and I were let out in the back yard for our noon time potty break. When we were called in, we were all at the back fence, we had all three been barking at someone that was walking their dog in the park. We were called back in and Bella and I ran fast. Agnes wandered back in what we had come to call the "Agnes Stroll". In the middle of a patch of icy snow, she sat down. From the door way they thought she was stopping to take a potty break. Then the potty break stretched on, when they called again, they could see her struggling to pull herself with her front feet.

They ran out and found that her left rear leg did not work, she could not use it and it was just dangling. They called the rescue and the vet to tell then Agnes was on the way. They called a neighbor to help carry her to the car and left with her. A few hours later they returned with the bad news.

Xrays showed that her leg had broken where bone cancer had already weakened the bone. That explained her weak hips and her trouble walking. It was not bad hips, it was bone cancer that was weakening her bones and taking her energy. On a younger dog they might have amputated the leg to give her another chance on three legs, but with her advanced age, and the trouble in her hips, the cancer had already spread and amputating could not isolate it or do anything to lessen the pain in her hips. With the pain in her hips, she would not be able to adapt to walking on three legs, all of her weight on one rear leg would be impossible for her to handle. She was still fighting the heart worms, and one more fight was not in her.

Agnes, we hope we did all we could to make your last days happy. We will remember how loud you snored beside the bed at night, and how happy you were every night when everyone went up the stairs to the bed room. We will remember how you howled when you were left alone in the house or yard, keeping it up until someone came to get you. We will remember how great you snuggled in the evening, and how much you loved to sort through the toy bin, carefully select the perfect toy, then take them into a corner and shred them. We remember you lined up for your morning and evening pills, taken with peanut butter, you did love a treat.

People ask how we can foster rescued Goldens. They ask us how we can we take them in only to turn them loose? They ask us, "Don't you fall in love with them?" Of course we do, and as they say "If you love something, turn it loose......". We foster orphan dogs to help them find a life that is better than what they had and to give them a second chance. We do it to give them the best that we can as they wait for their Forever Home. Agnes came from the streets of a city where she had been abandoned after her owner found out what was wrong with her and abandoned her at a senior age to fend for herself. All she asked was some love and some understanding. All she asked was a second chance.

We gave Agnes the Forever Home that she wanted so badly. We hope we gave her some wonderful memories, we hope we made her journey a little easier. We hope she knows she was loved.

Below, two more photos of Agnes as she was dried off Saturday.

Mogley G. Retriever

p.s. We should not admit this, but Agnes came out from under her sedative while waiting for the tests to come back at the vets office. There were some snacks left in the lunch room, chocolate candy bars, cookies, doggy treats, etc. Agnes got snacks that most people would never let her have. She loved a snack, any treat was a welcome addition to her day. She went happy.