Cookie Monster found her wings on July 27th, 5 years 11 months and 29 days after she walked into our life.
Things were pretty good until June 11th, day of her 6th and last chemo treatment. After that the appetite kept on decreasing gradually, making it a daily challenge to find something that she would actually eat, but she still had the desire to see her friends and walk to the car and go for a rides.
We reached the point of no return around mid-July, when she simply refused any kind of food: we tried with steaks, bacon, prosciutto and many other strong flavors but she would just turn her head. One thing she always enjoied was a bowl of cold water, so we started adding some broth/steak juice to it, but that was not enought food for giving her energy and strength to support her own weight. The last 10 days she went downhill very fast, she got really skinny/boney and lost a good amount of weight and her breathing was getting more difficult each single day. Her last night we realized that she was not able to sleep on her side because she could not breathe anymore in that position, so we put pillows on both sides to help her stay upright.
She never cried or showed us that she was in pain, but it was so hard for her to even walk 10 yards that we knew that the time had come.
On the Saturday afternoon 7/27, we got ready to go for a ride with the car (one of her favorite things), we lifted her into the back and decided to give her the 3 sedative pills we got from the vet a few days earlier, so she’d relax and buzz out and spent the following 2 hours driving by all of her parks and ponds. When she fell asleep we drove to the vet and put her on the rolling cart for her final journey. She was our only baby and we already miss her immensely.
We would like to wish good luck to anyone that is going thru a similar situation and thank the Tripawds community and website for all the support. If we could go back we would do everything again, from the amputation to the chemo to the bacon. She was a happy dog with 4 legs, but was also just as happy with 3.
We created a photo/video as a tribute to her life. If you click on this link, you should be able to watch it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xim3nstbk8u0hh/Cookie%20Monster.mp4
In case you are going through this same OSA issue with your pet and are looking at what others have been going through, here below is our experience with Cookie:
– Dogue de Bordeaux, female, born on March 3rd 2007, spayed in August of 2007
– back right knee limp/difficulty getting up on her hind legs – ACL TTA surgery June 2011
– back left knee limp/difficulty getting up on her hind legs – ACL TTA surgery February 2012
– front left elbow limp – OSA (thankfully not present in the lungs yet at time of diagnosis) – Jan. 2013 amputation and 6 rounds of CarboPlatin with 10 water treadmill sessions from March to May: 9 good ones, while the last one at the end of May was tough, so she probably had less lung volume at that time already due to the OSA having metastasised to her lungs.
We only can’t help but wonder why she reacted so poorly to the last round of chemo and why the chemo maybe did not work as aggressively as we had hoped.
So, so sorry for your loss. Keep your memories of her close and you now have a very special guardian angel to watch over you.
Thinking of you.
Luanne & Shooter
I am so sorry for your loss. RIP Cookie monster. Run Free with all of our fellow Tripawd Warriors & Princess Warriors that are with you.
hugs
Michelle & Sassy
What a beautiful, happy video that shows us the awesome life you gave to Cookie. I’m so sorry that she is an angel now, it breaks my heart knowing that she is no longer with your pack. Please know we are here for you, and that her spirit will always be a part of your soul.
All my love & condolences to you at this difficult time.
My heart cries withyou today and I am just soooo sorry. Your sweet “Cookie Monster” lived life to the fullest.
You did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE for her and she knew it. Whether you did the sixth rou d or not wouldn’t have changed a thing.. It may, indeed, have given her that little bit of extended time that, although she wasn’t in the best of shape, she still found joy in beig loved by you.
Your selfless gift to her and the way you handled how she would exit this life….her terms doimg something she loved and surrounded by your love…..your courage, your copassion, your deep love for her…..it just leaves me breathless.
I haven’t been able to get the download to work….obviouslh others have, and I’m going to keep trying.
I’ve revisited your blogs and I just love Cookie Monster! That mug! Oh my goodness! Tnrough all the sadness—–no matter wht, when you see that mug one cannot help but smile! And that’s what Cookie Monster would want. She would want to know that through all your grief, she can still make you smile
I keep scrolling back up to look at that ADORABLE picture to keep myself from crying so much I can’t type I know she was a clown for you every hour of every day and just made you deliriously happy by just being herself!
And I know she was deliriously happy beig loved and spoiled by you.
Please know how deeply sorry we all are and, as hard as we all search for words of comfort, there are none—but it doesn’t stop us from trying. We, also, will never forget the brave and gentle giant—COOKIE MONSTER!! Now, I’m gonna’ scroll up at look at that mug again—and smile:-)
Sending you the most joyous of memories that Cookie Monster made for you,
Sally and Happy Hannah
I’m so sorry Cookie Monster’s journey has come to an end. Her video was beautiful. It shows what great life she had, and what great parents she had. And your girl sure could smile! Sending healing thoughts to you.
My sympathies to you and your family on your loss. She was a beautiful girl, well-loved and well-lived, although for too short a time. We are following your path very closely, it seems, with our old girl, Roxie, and I am both grateful to you for your generosity in sharing your journey, and very sorry that you had to take it.
-Liz and Roxie
I am so sorry. Sometimes the cancer is too strong and the chemo just isn’t enough.
That is a beautiful video. It is obvious that she was very loved and so very happy.
Many hugs
Karen and Spirit Magnum
My cheeks are wet… as I know exactly what you are feeling.. what you are going through. and the pain that tears your heart in half, chews it up and spits it out.
As I read your sad post.. I could not help but relive every, single step with my sweet boy Franklin.
The same thing, couldn’t lie on his side, couldn’t hop too far, the struggles to breath as he just wanted to be beside us, no matter what the cost.. and how he was still happy until the last beat of his heart.
Oh, how I wish I could buy a magic wand on Ebay to take away everyone’s pain, but then again, if we didn’t have this pain, it would mean that they did not mean much to us.;
What a sweet, cherishable video. Thank you for sharing!
She was well loved… and so were you!
*hugs*
Thank you so much to everyone for your thoughts, we appreciate them from the heart. Thank you.
Dear Cookie Monster,
I came back to Tripawds this morning to check on you, and was so sorry to hear you are gone. Maybe you’re running around heaven with Elgin, our dogue, who earned his wings a month before you. I am sending warm thoughts to your family, because I know that even though it’s been a whole month, they still feel your loss very painfully.
Take care of them from heaven!
Elgin’s Family