R.I.P. Tess

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned to Gunnar that Tess looked really skinny. He said he had thought the same thing, but we thought that it might be because her eating habits have changed due to the arrival of Linus, the eat-everything-in-sight dog, that we inherited from my father-in-law. So Gunnar started working on feeding her a extra and making sure she ate while Linus was locked up, etc...

As the weeks have gone by, she still was not looking well. He finally took her into the vet and after a series of tests concluded that nothing "simple" was wrong with her. The vet said that considering her age, it really wouldn't be worth our while to spend a fortune on diagnosis. She recommended waiting until Tess was no longer happy and responsive, and then putting her down. She did, however have some hope that it might be an infection, so she sent her home with antibiotics and steroids to see if that would help.

We thought she started looking better after a few days on the meds, but that was probably all in our heads. In a way it was a bummer though, as it got our hopes up that maybe what she had was fixable. The last couple days however, she has not been looking well at all. I haven't seen her much, as with all the construction I haven't been out in the back yard. Yesterday it became apparent that the end was near.

Gunnar took her down this morning to have her put down. Although we hadn't had her that long, she was a super sweet dog, and we were very sad to see her go.

We did talk to Grace about it. Actually Gunnar did most of the talking...as I was not doing too well emotionally with the whole thing. It worked out well though, that the other day my dad was talking to Grace about his dog Hector (the dog he had as a child). Grace asked him where Hector was now. My dad said Hector had died. Grace said "My dogs aren't going to die are they?" to which he replied that all dogs die eventually. At the time my mom and I scolded him, but in hind sight I think maybe it was God preparing her. Gunnar explained about how Grandpa had told her about Hector dieing, and now it was time that Tess was going to die too. He asked her if she wanted to say goodbye to Tess before he took her to where they were going to take care of her until she died. She went out with him and said good bye, but didn't seem to be too affected by the whole thing. I, on the other hand, have been quite the crier. I am blaming pregnancy hormones, but I am pretty sure I would probably be this way even if I wasn't pregnant. My darling sister Maria called me all the way from Spain when she heard the news, so that cheered me up somewhat.

Here is a picture from the day we brought Tess home.