I write this post with a heavy heart. It's been a week now since we had to say goodbye to our sweet girl Tigger and I am just now able to find the words to say. Everything just happened so fast and we are still in a bit of shock.
After Christmas we welcomed Trinity and Tigger into our new home. They were Chris's dogs when he lived at home and they stayed there until we were able to bring them to our house with a fenced in yard. Shortly after Tigger arrived, we discovered a lump on her mammary gland and had it removed. Luckily she was in superb health otherwise for an old gal, did well with the surgery and it turned out to be a low grade cancer that the vet wasn't too worried about returning. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when we were getting ready to schedule a 6 month check-up and warning signs started to appear. All of a sudden she lost her appetite and started heavily favoring her right front leg. We thought maybe arthritis with her age and when we added wet food to her diet she ate with abandon. But then an odd growth appeared on the side of her nose. Both Ares and Chaos have had harmless skin tags that looked gross but stopped growing and fell off without treatment. Unfortunately more spots started to appear overnight and a biopsy confirmed it was melanoma. We immediately scheduled an appointment with a specialist but within days of the diagnosis the seizures began. If you've never seen a dog seize, I hope you never have to. Chris called our vet after the first one, last Saturday morning, and she said to take her to the animal ER if it happened again. Sure enough, it did within hours, so we went to ER where she was given a shot to prevent any more seizures for 12 hours. The medication only held them off for the expected amount of time and then early Sunday they returned. I had a prescription filled as soon as the pharmacy opened but over the next 24 hours she had several more seizures. Chris took her out to see our regular vet on Monday and on the way she seized twice. One look from the vet and Chris knew it was time to let her go. The cancer was so aggressive it had spread to her brain and a $3,000 MRI was only going to confirm that and give us no further options.
I have never been in the position to have to make the choice to let an animal go. Y'all know we consider our furbabies family members and this was beyond difficult. But Tigger was suffering immensely, things were only going to get worse and there was no medical treatment to give her any quality of life. The right thing certainly isn't always this easiest and when Chris broke the news to me I broke into a fit of sobs. I'm not a big crier but my kids are my world and I felt like a piece of my heart was being taken. Chris buried Tigger in the field at his dad's house under a tree in the pouring rain. She was such a smart, happy girl and it was a joy to have her in our home for the end of her life. I am so thankful that she was able to meet Fallon and so, so glad I snapped this final picture of her with our baby girl. We continue to mourn this loss and only time will heal the wounds. Some say dogs do not have souls but I know better. Not only do dogs have souls, they are pure of heart and I am positive that they all go straight to heaven. Fallon has another angel to watch over her.
Tigger, we loved you so much and will miss you every day.
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