Rest in Peace Roxy, Rest in Peace

It is with great sadness that we had to make one of the hardest decisions as a pet owner to put our beloved Roxy down yesterday. If you have been following this blog from the beginning, you would know that Roxy has had a tough, physically challenging life. Four years ago, about the time we started this blog, Roxy was found to have an abdominal problem. Because of trouble with her heart and lungs, she wasn't a surgical candidate to resolve the abdominal problem. So, for the last four years, we have been blending her food down to a gruel and for the most part has seemed to have a decent quality of life.

Prior to us starting the Blog, in fact just a year into her life, Roxy needed to have one of her knees repaired. So, as you can see, she's had quite the challenging life. However, regardless of her physical challenges, she has always been our companion and guardian in virtually all of our adventures. In fact, with the exception of our trip to New York for Marq's college graduation, and a four day Cruise, she has always been by our sides. Roxy was always our guardian. In fact for about 95% of the time that Roxy was with us, she'd always come in our bedroom as we got ready for bed each night, almost as if she wanted to make sure everything was OK before we retired for the night.

Even in Roxy's early days, she was always looking out for the family members. She served as a surrogate mom to Lilly after we first brought her home. And, there was one time, shortly after we brought Lilly home that Lilly ran up the hill at the Pioneer home. Lilly was pretty quick, but Roxy was right on her heals and herded Lilly back to the house.

Because our dogs are such an important part of our family, naturally, they are part of our holiday celebrations. Roxy was always a willing participant in our holiday celebrations.

 

A month or so ago, we took Roxy in to the vet to have her get a physical. The vet thought she might have a collapsed disk in her spine, but thought she still seemed to be getting around OK. So, we kept her on a pain regiment to try to make her comfortable. Carol came home Wednesday of this week to take Lilly to a vet appointment to have an eye looked at that we thought might have another ulcer on it. Carol found Roxy on the floor and un-able to get up. With the help of our neighbor Keith, who hooked us up with the gravel, Carol was able to get Roxy loaded in the car and off to the vet. The vet checked her out and did X-ray's and didn't really see anything obvious. Roxy was able to get up on three legs, and though un-comfortable, was able to make her way out to the waiting room so we could return home.

However, when she got home, it became obvious quickly that Roxy wasn't comfortable, looked like she felt she was lacking dignity and generally not happy. She was reduced to laying on a blanket inside the motor home and us lifting her on the blanket in and out of the motor home so she could go potty. The last trip out, she didn't even get off the blanket before relieving herself. It was very sad. So, with no real options before us, we made the painful decision that it was time to remove Roxy from her pain.

Roxy only had one irritating trait. That was her barking at virtually any neighbor we have. We so wished she would stop doing it, but we didn't want that behavior to stop this way. We so wish we could have her back, happy and healthy. We will miss Roxy immensely, she has been an integral part of our lives as a family for so much of our time together. As long as we remember Roxy, she will always be with us, but her, like Tyson, Hannah and Burney before her, she will be missed so very, very much!

Take care! Eric and Carol