This is going to be difficult. I’m going to try to get through this without
getting too emotional. On May 18th I had
to make a very tough decision. I
surrendered my dog Chico over to the Humane Society. A few months ago Chico began having what we
believe are problems with his neck and/or back.
He was walking funny, he wouldn't jump up on the sofa anymore. He was not lying down, just standing very awkwardly. You
could tell he was uncomfortable. Then he
started having these screaming fits. When this all started I was in the Dominican Republic. It was late one night during one of the snow storms back in March. I was talking with my friend Tiff about it online. Asking her if she thought we should take him to the ER. She agreed that he should be seen immediately and she actually took him for me. Tiff loves animals and volunteers at a local shelter. She's familiar with the staff at the local animal hospital which is why she offered to take him for me. They took x-rays and they didn't see anything major on the images, just some minor arthritis. They gave us some pain medicine and told us to follow up with his regular vet. Several days later, I was actually at home and I was able to take him to the appointment. They examined him, ran some blood work and their diagnosis was that he had somehow tweaked his back. They started him on steroids, muscle relaxers
and pain pills. They also did a laser treatment on him while we were there in the office. Initially he seemed to improve. He was running again, a few days after he started the medications he began jumping up on the couch again. Things seems to be normal, except that he was on all these medications. He’s been on thee medications
for over two months now and his symptoms really haven’t improved, well initially
it seemed that they did but recently he’s deteriorated. This past week my daughter Jennifer had to
take him to the ER twice and he’s just constantly screaming in pain. I mean screaming. It's not a bark or a yelp it's a scream. When my daughter took him into the ER the first time the doctor remarked that he heard him when she first brought him in and she thought that someone had brought a duck in.
The reason I surrendered him, well there’s a
couple of reasons, maybe three. One
thing is I’m not there and my daughter Jennifer is doing everything she can to
take care of him and it was becoming very overwhelming for her. His screaming is very stressful for her. He’s waking her up at night and during the
day, she works for home and he’s screaming. When he screams it's not just a short yell sometimes it goes on for hours. He’s not screaming to be annoying he’s screaming because he’s in
pain. While he screams he's looking at you like please help me but there's nothing you can do. Even though he’s on all this
medication he’s still in pain and at this point nothing seems to be helping with his pain. The other
part about this is if it’s a neck or back problem they’ve told us that we need
to take him to a neurologist and they told us with a neck or back problem you
could be looking at $3,000 to $5,000 bill when all is said and done. The specialist recommended that I apply for a doggie care credit card which I did and of course I was declined. I love Chico but I can’t pay that kind of
money right now for my dog. The ER kept him overnight on Thursday night and they really did all they could for him but the other piece of this story is that he stopped eating back on Monday. So everyone is getting very concerned about his overall health and well being because he won’t eat. He wouldn’t eat for us, he wouldn’t eat for the ER so we’re not sure what’s going to happen at this point. Throughout our journey over
the past couple of months we’ve been in contact with the Humane Society to see
what our options were for Chico. My daughter Jasmine talked to them and they
said to bring him in and their vet would evaluate him and if they think he can
be cured we could surrender him to them and they would utilize their resources
to try to get him whatever he needs. Once he's better they will find a rescue or someone to adopt him who can care for all of his needs. So
that’s where we ended up. The lady I spoke to at the Humane Society
told me that I can call and check on him and she said if he doesn’t start to
eat and the vet determines that there isn’t anything more they can do and they
recommend putting him down then they would contact me and I can get his ashes.
I cried for hours and I’m still very upset and the reason I’m
writing about this is because I don’t know what people think about my journey
that I’ve been on for the past year but honestly it doesn’t matter what people think. My
perception is that some people think that I’m living this fairy tale fantasy
life. I have been so blessed in my
life. I have very few if any complaints
but its not all a fairy tale. I don’t
want anyone to perceive this as I’m complaining because I’m not I’m just stating
facts, well my facts, how I feel. You
know every day on this journey I’ve had to make tough choices. One of the toughest choices is where I’m
going to be, like literally where am I going to be has been a choice. Almost daily. Deciding where to be for holiday's, special family events and celebrations, birthdays, baby showers, Mother's Day. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Dominican Republic which is where
my husband is. But being here means that
I’m leaving behind everyone else that I love.
It’s been difficult, it’s been really difficult to strike a balance
between my life with my kids and my family and my future which I believe
is with my husband and that’s not to say that I have to pick one or the other
but where things are now. My husband can’t
come to the US so I have to make choices all the time. This situation with my dog. Could things have been different if I were home I don’t know maybe but I know in my heart
that she did everything that she could for him.
I just want everyone to know that it’s not this fairy tale. It’s tough choices. I’ve had to really make some sacrifices. My good friend Maria she tells me all the
time that she doesn’t know how I’ve been able to do this Life in America is very different than life
here. I’m used to my life in America, I’m
used to hot water, hell I’m used to water in general whenever I want or need it. Water isn't always available here. I'm used to air conditioning whenever I want it. Along the way I’ve made decisions and I’ve
talked about that you don’t know what you can put up with until you have to and
some would argue that I don’t have to live this way but it’s a choice that I’ve
made. I don't know why God has placed me here but I know there's a reason it just hasn't been revealed to me yet. I'm continuing to trust God and when the time is right everything will make sense and my purpose will be revealed.
Some of my favorite pictures of Chico are included in this post.
Some of my favorite pictures of Chico are included in this post.
I’m sorry Terri 😘
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