Sophie was originally my aunts dog. My aunt got Sophie from her neighbor that didn't want Sophie anymore. Sophie was about 6 months old when she went to my Aunts house. I have known Sophie all her life and so have my dogs.
In May of 2004, my Aunt died. I asked her husband if we could have the dogs, there were three of them. At that time he said no, but I let him know that if he ever didn't want the dogs, we would take them. He let us know in December that we could have the dogs. It was December 4th. My sweet husband drove from Minnesota to Maryland in a weekend to retrieve the dogs for me.
So, I always say Sophie was my Aunts dog, which she was, but she was actually my dog in the end. I had her for almost ten years. She surprised us with how well she behaved. We thought we would have issues with her, and she turned out to be a wonderful pet for our family.
Around August I noticed she was drinking a lot of water and brought her to the vet for a check. She had liver issues, so we put her on medicine and started her on a special food for dogs with liver issues. A couple of weeks ago I went to get her more food and spoke with one of the vet techs about Sophie. She wasn't getting any better, and she was actually doing a little worse. She was starting to retain water and she was starting to have problems breathing.
The vet called me the next day and we talked about Sophie, and options. One of them was to drain the fluid, giving Sophie more time, a week, a month, two months--who knows? Once you start draining, you have to keep draining. We talked about quality of life etc for Sophie. I reluctantly decided that Sophie needed to go to her final resting place. She was 12 years old, and had a wonderful life. It wasn't fair to her to have to suffer just because I wanted her here still. I could she how bloated she was, and hear how difficult it was for her to breath.
She was still feisty and barky though. She was our barky dog. We always knew when someone was here, because she would bark. And when we arrived home, she always greeted us with her bark barking. I miss that now. Our house is quiet, and our other dog Louie is lonely. He has always been our quiet dog.
My mom was sad about Sophie too. She said it was like one of the last ties to my Aunt. And she is right. I feel like it was more than just Sophie that we let go.
We brought her in Thursday, and we were all there with her. I held her and comforted her. Her passing went quickly. I was able to spend some time alone with her on Thursday, to tell her she wouldn't be in pain much longer and to tell her what a good girl she was for us. I know she knew, and I know she understood.
So we go through the days, one at a time, missing Sophie and adjusting to our new, quieter house. I miss her more than I ever thought I would.
