How we became parents...: March 2012

Today was one of the saddest days Jen and I have gone through. We put our dog, Drama, to sleep. She was our 3 year old Pekingese. For those of you who did not know, on Wednesday this week, Drama suddenly became paralyzed just below her shoulders leaving her hind legs useless. We still do not know exactly what happened. It could have been an injury or an embolism. Drama was very active and jumped and hopped around like a bunny all over our furniture outside. She also would wrestle with our much larger German Shepherd, Ari. It also could have been a degenerative disc. X-Rays showed no fracture to her spine. The next step was to have an MRI and more than likely a very expensive surgery that may or may not have fixed her. The MRI alone was $1800. With a 4 month old daughter, Jen and I could not see spending that. Our vet had us try a mix of steroids, muscle relaxers and pain relievers in the hope that deep pain would return to her limbs. For those that do not know what deep pain is, the vet will take a metal tool and squeeze on their paws in the hope that the she would react. Drama felt nothing. On Thursday, Jen and I both went to the vet thinking she would not come home with us. We saw her and she had her personality and was excited to see us. We stole a treat from the vet's room and she downed it just like she always does. We couldn't make a decision when we could see she was still there. We took her home to see if things would get better.

I took her Saturday to another vet for a second opinion. He did the same deep pain test and saw the same results. He literally said, "Put her to sleep or see a neurologist." I was pretty upset over this. I took her home and we tried to care for her. Over the course of the next 16 hours, we did 9 loads of laundry, I had to change my clothes 3 times, and we gave Drama 3 baths. If you know her baths are the thing she hates the most. She was frustrated that she could not do what she wanted and Jen and I were exhausted trying to care for her and Claire at the same time. We both knew we could not keep this up. So this morning, we took her in and she was put to sleep.

Jen and I are pretty devastated right now. It would be one thing if she lived a long life and we could see this coming. She in our eyes was still a puppy and was so energetic. Who would think that something like this would happen so early? I thought we had at least 8 years before a decision like this would be necessary. And I always thought Drama would outlast Ari.

I have been feeling guilty thinking that we took our dogs for granted after we got Claire. Jen keeps telling me that while they didn't get as much attention as before, we still did a ton with them.

I am just glad we do not have to tell our niece Delilah that 'Baby Dama', as she called her when she was younger, is no longer here. I am going to leave that to my sister and Chris.

We miss you Drama. Hopefully you are having fun with Daisy now.

Here are a couple pics of our 1st baby before we had Claire:

First pics of Drama at the pet store