Dutch, my friend and companion, died Sunday April 28, 2012 at 8am in the morning. He was totally normal in every way on Saturday. He was his usual hungry, happy and energetic self. My first sign of issues was that he did not wake me up at 4:30 - 5am but we slept till 6:30. I got up and fed the boys and Wyatt tore into his food but Dutch did not seem to want to eat so I knew right then that something was seriously wrong with this dog. I quickly woke up Amy and she also thought that a lack of appetite was a real danger sign for Dutch so we took him to our emergency vet clinic. They took him in immediately and in just a few minutes the vet was back looking grim. She said that his abdomen was very loose (not good) and so she took a fluid sample with a syringe and it was full of blood. It was enough blood that we either had to have surgery immediately or take other actions. Her experience told her that labs of his age were very prone to cancerous tumors on the spleen and that they had a tendency to rupture and cause just this kind of massive internal bleeding. Even with surgery he had maybe 19 days to 3 months and then with chemo therapy he might get up to 6 months. I decided that his last days should not be recovery and days of treatments so we decided to take the other option. They brought him in and I got to sit with him on the floor for a short time then they prepped him and brought him out on a rolling hospital bed. Amy and I stayed with him. I was in front of him with him wagging his tail and licking my face when they gave him the anesthesia so his last moments were happy with his human and with love. I will miss Dutch very much and I look forward to telling stories of his antics for many years to come.
https://plus.google.com/photos/104581101531774070439/albums/5109049384429088737
