FURRY FRIENDS BOOK - WEEKLY STORY PAGE 2

During my period of morning for my girls, I found a female Chow/Lab mix on the Internet, Whoopi, and sponsored her. It seemed a fitting tribute to my two rescue girls who were now at the Bridge. She had not been adopted 90 days later, and, unfortunately, was scheduled for euthanasia. She came to live with us in January of 2005.

Every night before I went to bed, Nanda Bug would come to my side of the bed for scratches and then lie down for the night. He loved sleeping next to me. In the morning, I would sit down and we would say hello to each other. Never much of a licker, he would spend a good five minutes trying to groom me every morning when we started our day.

In late January, 2007, Ferdinand started to weaken, and seemed unable to walk our usual distance. I sort of let him set the pace and where we walked, and found him turning back for home sooner every time. At one point, he fell over when I tried to get him to go on a certain path toward home. It took a good five minutes to get him up and moving again. I knew our walks were finished.

Ferdinand began having trouble breathing. Short distances seemed to exhaust him. I found a huge lump under his front leg one morning when we were doing our morning greeting. He lost interest in food. I started buying him canned cat food, hand feeding him fish - anything to get him to eat. I spent so much time on the floor with him I told my new husband we should get a dog dish with my name on it.

Less than a week after the breathing problems started, I took Ferdinand to our vet on February 16, 2007. He was so weak at that point, I didn’t know if I’d leave the vet’s office with him or not. Randall, who by now was 10 years old, turned down a chance to play Wii for the first time at his best friend’s house and insisted on coming with me to the vet’s office. Ferdinand had been his friend his entire life. He couldn’t imagine a life without him. Neither could I.

My vet was concerned about Ferdinand’s breathing as well. When she tried to aspirate the lump, she got blood, which is a really bad sign. She took him in for lung x-rays and bloodwork. When she re-entered the exam room, I could tell by the look on her face it wasn’t good news. Ferdinand was only breathing about 80 percent in one lung. The other lung was filled with and surrounded by fluid, as was his heart.