Skippy..... he has been in our life for 9 years. My husband and I found him on the SPCA site for NB while we were living in Boston. We knew we were moving to New Brunswick soon enough and we knew we wanted to own a dog. His SPCA photo was him, curled up on the couch with a red bandana tied around his neck, head resting on the armrest. I will never forget how sweet he looked.
And then I went to see him! Once we were settled in our jobs and our new home, we figured we were ready for him. I went out to the house. He was tied outside, had chewed down trees that were at least an inch in diameter, had dug holes in the dirt around his delapidated dog house and he bounded at me as I tried to approach him. Thank goodness the officer from the SPCA had some experience with him. She managed to get a harness around him and asked if I wanted to walk him. He pulled me down the street.
After a bit of training, a bit of spoiling (our basement couch is his official bed) and a lot of love, he turned into a fabulous pet! This is about a year and a half after he first came home, he is cuddling with our first born. He has had this demeanor with our 3 kids since day one.
The kids play with him, get in his face and disturb him while he is trying to relax. We are always beside him, always watching; he is a big boy with a big mouth, but there has never been a reason to second guess his actions. He even loves our guinea pigs!!
Skippy is about 10 1/2; he was out running with me at the beginning of December, about the same time we discovered the lump on his thigh. The lump grew quickly. Over the past 10 days he has gotten a lazy front paw. The Vet has said the lump is a tumor and the rest of the behavior is arthritis. I question the arthritis part, but we are giving him his pills with the hope that they help and we will follow up in a few days. Unfortunately the lump is in the muscle and any intrusion to biopsy or remove it will be expensive. So we don't know if the tumor is benign or not.
I have come to the conclusion that because his health has deteriorated so rapidly, that it can only be a bad sign. He now gets the scraps from the table and cuddles more on our beds. So my fear has come forward about how a parent discusses death with her children.
We have made the kids more aware that Skippy is sick, they shouldn't poke him anymore, he just needs more cuddles and when he is feeling good he will come play with us.
And now I move on to learn more about the largest life lesson that I will work through with my kids, death. Not a subject in school, but a big part of life.
This experience does remind me of a show I heard recently about a mortician who is trying to open up the conversation on death. She has a website where she answers questions and talks openly about herself and her job and death.
If you have some advice, I am looking for advice.
