Goodbye, Little Goo

These photos and videos are really heartbreaking but I wanted to share them.   I know, I know, my family is constantly telling me I overshare, so I apologize for that in advance.  I have written in paper journals and online journals all my life, even since I was very, very young - it's my outlet.  And so since I couldn't sleep tonight, I figured I'd document Maggie's last days.  Somehow there's a little comfort when I know other people read my words.  I'm sure at least one member of my family will tell me to take this down anyway because they'll think it's inappropriate to share.  Until then, I guess, if you don't want to read or view any of this, don't.  I've shared losing other pets, so maybe this will pass inspection.

My parents took a 2 week trip/cruise to Alaska. Ellen and Heidi were tag-teaming on watching the dogs at my parents' house. Early last week Maggie seemed ill, so Ellen took her into the vet. We thought she was improving, but by end of week she had blood in her urine and her organs were failing. The vet called my parents in Alaska, and my Dad called me. It was the first time in my entire life I heard my father cry, which broke my heart into a million pieces.  He could barely speak and managed to get out "I loved that little dog", before he told me he had to get off the phone.

Ellen came into town Friday to pick me up after this news, and we saw immediately she was not well. Her whole face was puffy and she just wanted to lay down and close her eyes.  Maggie passed peacefully in under two minutes (she didn't even need the pre-relaxation shot the vets normally give), with her paw on Dad's hat.  The last video shows how peacefully she went after the shot.  If you turn the volume up, you can hear our vet tell us she feels a faint heartbeat yet, and then a few moments later tell us "she's gone".  Watching the last video without the sound up would be missing out on a special moment....the exact moment of an animal peacefully crossing the Rainbow Bridge.  Maggie was ready.

We are still not sure what happened - they ruled out everything except a possible toxin. Our vet did a necropsy to see if we can find out what it was to prevent the other dogs from getting into it.

How TOTALLY unexpected.  Maggie was 12.5 but still acted like a puppy and had plenty of spunk left in her...it was Riley (our 14.5. year old that we've been worried about).  I would have been sad either way, but I think the fact that we didn't even consider Maggie to be out of our lives anytime soon made it all the harder.

Rest in peace, my silly Goo. I will miss your stingy kisses, you rooting into my overnight bags when I came to sleep at Mom and Dads, being naughty and tipping over garbage cans, stealing burnables from the firepit that had even a HINT of food residue on them, bringing me dead animals (okay I won't miss that), watching you swim so gracefully and using the stairs to get in and out of the pool and then shaking off all over us, you loving any toy that had a voicebox in it and activating it over and over, getting into the bird seed barrel and then taking secret bird seed dumps in Mom and Dad's walk-in closet (Dad sure loved that), digging in huge piles of dirt, opening food cupboards (even with childhood locks on them), learning how to open Mom and Dad's patio door and getting outside, stealing food from plates and counters. Oh Maggie, you know that with all my animals, I always loves them naughty ones the best. :')

I'm so sorry that Mom, Dad, and Heidi could not there to be with you, but know that we all loved you very much and will never forget you. This was a hard thing to happen with the family split up, and will continue to be hard until we all have the chance to grieve together. We miss you, Magdeline Marie - December 25, 2000 to August 16, 2013. We were not ready for you to go, but hope you lived the life of a queen.  Good bye my sweet girl from The Land of Misfit Toys.

My heart aches for you.

Maggie's last minutes: