September 9, 2021 • 33 mins
What happens once your pet is gone? Will your other pets grieve? Liz's middle dog, Hero, is having a bit of a hard time after Bones passed away as is her orange tabby cat, Kirk. Yet the youngest dog, Seven, is absolutely fine. Your three hosts discuss grieving, how to help your pet after the loss of their companion, and how to find that new normal.
EPISODE NOTES: When It's Time To Say Goodbye Part 2
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EPISODE NOTES: When It's Time To Say Goodbye Part 2
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/it-s-a-doggy-dog-world-dog-podcast-pet-life-radio-original--6670147/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Pet Life Radio, Let's Talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hi, Welcome to It's a Donkey Dog World. I'm your host,
Liz Polaika, and with me are my good friends Petro
BIRDAA and Kate Abbott Hog. And we're talking about a
little bit of a somber subject in this podcast. In
our previous one, if you listen to them consecutively, which
I know some of you listeners do, we talked about
(00:46):
the sad issue of losing a dog. I recently lost
my good boy Bones to cancer, and we discussed that
in that podcast as well as I mean, if you
love a dog, you're going to lose them, and we've
all lost dogs, multiple dogs, So we talked about that
and some of your options for singing it through what
(01:08):
to do afterwards. Today, what we want to talk about
is the changes you may see at home if you
have other dogs or cats at home. And this is
doggy dog World, but we all know we love cats too,
and most of us have cats, except for those of
us Kate who have terriers who cannot trust their dog
with a cat get them. But Patron I both have cats,
(01:32):
and I know a lot of dog owners do. So
we're going to talk about what happens to those pets
at home as they adjust to their new normal. And
I know with my situation, Bones was for lack of
a better term, and it's kind of outdated, but it's
still for lack of a better term. Bones was the
leader of the pack. He was the boss. He was
(01:55):
the instigator. He was the one that went through the
door first. He was the one that ran the fastest
and told the other dogs to chase him. He was
the one that decided. Basically, I won't say he was
a dictator, but he was definitely the leader. And in
the first few days after his passing, Hero, who was
(02:15):
the middle child, was lost, and there were a few
times I caught him standing in the middle of the
living room with his head down, just going, I don't
know what to do, just standing there with his head down.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Nobody's telling me what to do.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I don't know what to do. And I would tell him, Hero,
go lay down, and he would go, oh good, okay. Now,
Hero's a wonderful boy. He's not my brightest. He's not dumb,
but he's not my brightest. But the biggest thing is
he's not he's not competitive, and he's used to following
(02:51):
the leader, and he's definitely not the leader, and he's
not going to be seven. Who's the youngest? Is a
read looking at the potential of stepping up to being
the leader, which I would expect from the bitch anyway,
using bitch in the proper terminology, usually the bitches are
(03:11):
more dominant. Bumbs wasn't about to let her be more dominant.
But Hero will, Hero will probably be very happy to
have another leader. When you lost Walter, though, it was
a totally different dynamic.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well pretty much had a party.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Yeah, it's like, I don't think he was ever sad.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Dog is gone.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
He didn't listen. But you lost two in a short
period of time. He lost Katie not long after Walter.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Well, yeah, wasn't that long.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, Oh wow, time fly.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And Katie's again was I mean she was seventeen?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Yeah, I had order, but I took her in the
last three or four years.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Maybe maybe a little bit more than that four.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
But I knew her longer. Yeah, because she belonged to
a friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We'd all known Katie, and.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Then when my friend had to go into assisted living,
I took Katie and she was I mean I joked
that she was just a level above a potted plant.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
She was a sweet dog.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
She was a very sweet dog. And it didn't matter
how much she lost her hearing about everything. She could
still hear the refrigerator open.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I love that old dog selective hearing.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Once I built her a little wrap so she could
get up on the automan next to Virginia's chair and
be able to beg for food and get the occasional treat.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
She was thrilled.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
That was her throne.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
She was great.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
So that then she slipped and tore her acl and
it was quite painful, and at her age and with
associating heart.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And lung issues. No, they're like, nope, no, we're not
putting her under We're not putting her through rehab, et cetera,
et cetera. It's time. So it's kind of like, okay,
it wasn't sit around and go do I need to
decide now? Yeah? I had to because she wasn't pain
and pain feels, you know, for a day or two
or something.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So I did take her.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Home for twenty four hours, and she had all of
the chicken chi could eat.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Show up, show up to heaven with a full coming,
because you know, they might not feed her there.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
She had been showing kidney issues, so they had her
on a low protein diet, which was not making her happy. Yeah,
so I was like, here, have all the protein you
missed in the last year. And I continued to give
her pieces of boiled chicken as they put the line
in and then the initial sedative and the time, and
(05:53):
she was just still munching away.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Gone, yeah, she better talk to bones.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So from slip to making the veterinary appointment, you know,
it was twenty four hours. Yeah, and yeah, it's still
I mean, she stayed on that little perch, but it's
still left a gap in the house, mainly.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
With the humans.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, more than Quilt. She did and Quilt just kind
of ignored each other. But it was a big change
for Virginia too, not to have some. And the day
before she slipped, she would still scream if she didn't
feel like she was getting a treat to screams that
she could do. So, yeah, even even a potted plant
can leave a hole in the house.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
Maybe with Kiley, even though she was a Pomeranian, she
was still a boss dog of aravails. Oh yeah, and
her little place was right between the pillows on my bed.
And for a while because Ponto sleeps next to me,
has to touch me. But he probably from good five
to seven days. He you know, he would always.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
Knew that was her spot, so he would sleep a
little bit more over. But it took him a while
to get closer and then take over her.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Spot because surely she was hiding under the covers. Or yeah, well,
Bones is passing besides leaving Hero feeling kind of lost.
My big orange cat. Kirk missed him. The kitten didn't.
Seven didn't not really, they're both younger. Bones was the adult,
(07:31):
was not involved in raising the kitten where his Hero was.
The kitten's of foster Phil by the way, So I
got her at two days old and fostered her and
then she never left because Kirk the cat chose her.
But Kirk wandered the house for a couple days, I think,
or at a couple different times, meowing. He'd stop in
(07:51):
a room and meow, nothing happened what he was looking for.
He'd go to another room and meow, come down the hallway,
and then it quit. But he did that several times
over two or three days. In fact, he did it
again last night. So he's looking he's searching for bones.
(08:12):
There's something missing, There's something missing.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, we had talked earlier about littermates. Virginia had littermates
puts Stormy and Albert.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
And at the age of fifteen, when Albert developed cancer
and it wasn't really treatable.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
I mean not without a lot of pain that she
didn't want to do for him, put him down. Stormy
was put down about six months later. They said heart issues,
but I think she just her heart literally failed her
without her brother, just gave it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, Patron and I have Facebook friends. Although did we
ever meet one of the English shepherd gathers. I don't
think so. Anyway. A woman and her husband who had
two English shepherds, and one of the English shepherds was
killed protecting their two English shepherds were littermates, sisters, and
(09:08):
the bolder one was protecting her house and family and
sister from a big mama moose and the moose killed her.
The surviving sister, who was the more subordinate one, passed
just months later, just curled up, went to sleep and
passed away. Was heartbroken, was so heartbroken. She witnessed it.
(09:32):
She witnessed what happened, witnessed that her sister was gone
like that tragically, and her owners tried everything to get
her involved in life again, but she just went to
sleep and passed, just gave up. Very tragic. And now
they have no dogs, they lost both of them.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
And break heart. The house is so empty.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well. She she sent me private messages about Bones the
whole time, from when I posted that I was going
to have to make a decision, all the way through
losing him, and then a couple of days after she
post off, and she says, I'm not trying to intrude.
I'm not trying to be She says, I know where
your heart is, and I'm going you lost two.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, so and for ourselves.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Today I got out of the shower and I had
been in a rush to get in and I had
dropped my black sweatpants.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Oh yes, so Walter.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I came out of the shower and I was My
first thought was he was there waiting, as that was
where he waited for me. Yeah, And it took a
minute from my brain to go, oh no, this closed, ah,
so it'll sneak up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
My big thing that I saw immediately was in I'm
mid range asperger, so I count anyway. I count things.
I I order things, and so I put things in order.
So the dog's going outside, one two three, I don't
say bones hero seven. I go one, two, three, three
(11:11):
dogs outside. Everybody's accounted for. Open the door to let
them in. One two three, All three dogs are counted for.
All three dogs are inside. And I do it mentally.
And it was one two and coming in one too,
And that was so wrong. Yeah, there was one missing.
Maybe if I wasn't counting, but then I'm sure it'd
(11:33):
still be the dog's name. But it was one two
or feeding time or feeding time getting out the footballs.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
It's just like brain memory, muscle memory.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You just take out your food balls. You're like, oh,
I told you that. The next day, I had to
put one of the food balls away in the cupboard
because for dinner that night, for breakfast the next morning,
I got out three balls, and that in itself is
kind of shocked when you go, no, I only need two,
And it was almost a little hurtful to pull out
(12:07):
three and not need one. Right, Yeah, So I put
it away. So now there's only two with the food
and I only put two in the RV for the
upcoming trip because it's I only need one in a
water bowl. Yeah, it's habit things that I think hit
the most because those are the things you're not thinking
(12:28):
about their habit and that leaves that hole.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yep, it's true for people. I mean I can after
my mom passed, I can still remember waking up and
thinking I heard her alarm her bed an go on,
Oh yeah, yeah, I've gotta rush over her. No I don't. Yeah, okay,
but try to go back to sleep with their heartcoming.
Oh yeah, yeah, and you know, still setting a place
(12:51):
for someone at the table, things like that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah. And with Pop being gone, it's just me and
the dogs and the cats. So yeah, they're they're my family.
All right. Well, we need to take a break for
our sponsors, so hold on. We've got a lot more
to talk about when we get back.
Speaker 8 (13:11):
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(13:31):
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(13:53):
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(14:16):
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Speaker 7 (14:21):
So what's your reaction, Kate when you hear Ben and
Jerry's now has dog treats?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Now, I won't have to share my ice cream with
them anymore, because you know, anybody comes near me when
I'm meeting my Ben and Jerry's, They're likely to get
growled at.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I think it's a cool idea. I've sometimes made my
dog's frozen treats or gotten some that are commercially available,
but considering how much I love Ben and Jerry's, it's
about time my puppy dog's got to enjoy that as well.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
And my favorite one is the cherry Garcia.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, I'll growl anybody comes near me, I'll meet me
that I'm a chunky monkey freak.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I like that that way.
Speaker 7 (15:02):
But also I love peanut butter. And did you know
that one of the dog you dog flavors is paunch.
It has peanut butter and pretzels.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Ooh, and Rosie has pumpkin and many cookies. That's am
I ni. I'm sure it has lots of cookies too,
but they're a little small cookies and they're many cookies
and pumpkin, which I do give my boy pumpkin in
his dinner, so this would actually been a nicer way
for him to get it.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
Yeah, so I think I would qualify mine in the
freezer is my ice cream. And then I have to
label the dog's version of Ben and Jerry's as the
Frozen Treat Doggy Dessert.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And one way you can tell is instead of the
black and white cow on the front of the little container,
it's a black and white dog for the dog trees
so you can tell which one is which because it's
their dog. Frozen treats are are not designed for humans,
made with human quality ingredients, but not designed for humans,
(15:58):
so you do want to keep them separate. And I
can only get my boy a little bit in my
dear of my own ice cream, my Ben and Jerry's
ice cream, because yeah, it doesn't always set well with him,
but now he has his own, He's gonna have.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
His own, all right.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
So go out there, buy some for your furry little
friend there and enjoy together.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Enjoy.
Speaker 8 (16:16):
Let's talk past Let's pet Talbot Headline.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Radio, petlve radio dot com. We know you're begging for more,
so back to It's a Doggy Dog World with your
fetching hosts Liz Pelika and this week's co hosts, Kate
Abbot and Patri Burke.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Welcome back to It's a Doggy Dog World. This is
your host Liz Pelika with my good friends Patri Burke
and Kate Abbot. So what can we do to help
the dogs? I know one of the things I've done
with mine two is taking them with me a little
bit more. They're here at the trading center. Now, I
took him to your house earlier, even though they weren't
(16:59):
there to go for a run. I took them with
me if I went somewhere the last several days, because
it hasn't even been a week yet. The last several days,
as long as I wasn't going to leave the car
because it's too hot to leave them in the car.
If I was going to Starbucks to get iced tea,
I took him with me. Where is most of the time,
(17:22):
fifty to fifty, I'll take them or leave them home.
So I have been taking them with me a little
bit more. But I can't keep doing that because I
don't want them to expect to go every time.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And I do think as much as possible your routines
for them as well. Yeah, and knowing what they need.
Like you said, you told Hero what to do right
in the absence of bone selling them what to do right.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And I did it kindly. I didn't owe for Pietzigs
go lay down. It was it was very gently Hero.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
You can go lay down and find that new normal.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
You did ask me one time, do you think dog's
grief each other? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, there's no question. Yes, Yeah, they grieve. They know
the difference. Well, there's some of them.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Well, there is some emotion there.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, I well wasn't the only one that threw a
party when Paul's and my old girl Dax, who was
a bitch and all of the definitions of the word
ten times ten. Well she met Kate one day. She
thought it was deserved. But yeah, Dax was a bitch
(18:35):
in all of the definitions of the word. When she passed,
and she was an old girl, she was fourteen, yeah years.
She was an old girl. And when it was time
for her to go, it was time for her to go,
except my husband had a hard time letting her go.
She was Paul's dog when she passed. But she threw
(18:56):
a party, but she was She ran, but sheer ragged.
She was a bitch to him. When we'd come home
from the training yard. I'd walk in the door from
the garage. He would stick his head around and go,
where is she? And sometimes she would charge at him,
sometimes she wouldn't. If she did, I step between her
and Bashir and he'd hide behind me. And Basher was
(19:19):
not a dog to hide. He didn't hide from anybody
else in this world except for her. When she passed,
he threw a party. He was a very happy dog,
and deservedly so.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
She was a dog who'd let you know when it
was time.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yes, But it took Paul a couple months after that
to let her go. I couldn't make the decision for him.
He had to let her go, but she was very
clear when it was time. But she was incontinent and
she hated it. She couldn't control her ladder when she slept.
I'd put potty pads under her, put diapers on her.
(19:58):
Oh God, she hated the diapers. And finally I told Paul,
you have to let her go because I went to
put the diapers on her and she almost bit me.
She snapped at me. She could have bit me if
she wanted to, but she was just saying enough, I
don't like this, I don't want this. I can't help it.
I don't want And so I didn't and I put
(20:20):
Poddy paths on her. But I told Paul, I said, look,
she's miserable. So and I still had to take her
to the met He couldn't do it. The softest man
on the face of the planet, he never ever thirty
seven years of marriage and he never ever took one
of the dogs in the softest man ever have Marie.
So but anyway, how can we help the dogs keep
(20:43):
him on as regular schedule as we can? But yeah, yeah,
and don't get upset.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
If they agreed, yeah, might be wandering around looking a
little lost.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Bounce was lost when passed. Of course, when sheer pass
that made Bones an only dog, and he was not
at all happy being an only dog. Thankfully, Hero's letter
had already been born, and so it was only a
couple of months, y're a month and a half I think,
until we went out and got Hero from the breeder.
But Bones was not happy being an only dog and
(21:18):
was actually a little fearful. And for as confidence as
he was, that was that was very sad to see
with Kirk with the cat. I dug out some cat toys.
I dug out some catnip for him. He's one of
those cats that likes catnip. Cat nip in the middle
of the tile floor and he's rolling it in and purring.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
But knowing who they are before, I don't want to say,
don't project your own grief upon them, but wait and
let them show you.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, you know you were grieving for Bones before.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Goodbye. Trying to smuggle with him. Yeah, and he was
like no that yeah, yeah, yeah, give him the space
to tell you what they need about that. That's so big.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, when you lost Shasta, you had Teddy at home.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Right, I had Conna and Teddy and Teddy.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
ConA was the one that missed her, yeah, the most.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Had he lost his vision at that point he did,
so he was blind and missing hers, and Teddy was
a big dufis and no help at all. Yeah. I
seem to remember ConA grieving her.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Yeah, because she did help him around the house, you know,
kind of her little guide dog.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
And I my limited scope.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I would say that it really has helped the dogs
the whole household to see the body.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yes, and that's one reason why I one of my
several reasons of why I had the vet come to
the house for bones.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
And then my shastak. We took ConA and Writer.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
The two dogs who were closest to her.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Yeah, yeah, I did not you?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Was it you?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Who was it that had taken a dog? Padam pit
the sleep came back without the Dotta and the other
one Ursa wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh no, that was Careber, our last German, our last
German shepherd Michi. Paul was still in the Marine Corps,
was deployed to the field his dog, of course, his dog.
While he's gone. Michi went into multi organ failure and
kidney's liver is like his body just started to shut down.
(23:38):
I already had a pretty good idea what was happening,
but I threw him in the car, went to the veterinarian,
and after the exam, the veterinarian told me what was
going on, and I could see it. Michi was just
collapsed and was he was rapidly fading, so we just
eased him on. I came home without him and care Beer,
(23:59):
my Australian shepherd, who was only about six months old
at the time, blamed the car, Silver SUPERU station Wagon.
Blamed the car, and I actually had to get rid
of that car because if I forced him in the car,
if I picked him up and put him in the car,
he shook like he was on a vibrating platform. He
(24:21):
shook and drooled and was scared to death. If I
put him in somebody else's car, he was absolutely fine.
He blamed that car, and it sounds silly, but I
actually sold that car and got another car. Because he
wouldn't get over it. That car was dangerous and took
(24:42):
his buddy away, and his buddy never came home. Ye,
grief is a funny thing. It can be strange for people,
but never mind if you don't necessarily understand what has happened.
Ursa was another one. I made the mistake of taking
her to the vet and didn't bring it anybody with me,
and the dogs at home had a really hard time.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
I had a cat I took when I was a
vet tech. I didn't there's something wrong. Took him in
that morning. We actually couldn't find anything wrong. Just as
we were closing the clinic for the day, he had
a brain aneurysm burst.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh oh oh, just.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And I still regret that I did not take his
body home. I left it there for kickoff. And the
other cat was that the cat that died was like
his baby bottle raised and so he just was lost. Yeah,
(25:41):
he yowed and searched and looked stared at me accusingly.
So yeah, I really wish I had been that I
had shown you.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I've had over the years three cats actually die at
home peacefully and they're sleep And never had a dog
do it. But I've had three cats do it, and
in all three cases it was startling to me, But
it was good for the other cats at home because
in all three cases, well in two of the cases,
(26:11):
Xena was the only cat when I lost her, but
the other two cats always happens on my bed, But
the other cats were all curled up with them, you know,
with Flea and Tigger. Both the other cats were with them,
and it was like, oh my god, that's so wonderful,
and that seems to ease the grief a little bit.
(26:32):
They were there with them. Yeah, heartbreaking me, douse. That
was the same way I had little mates and the.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
Female had tragically passed and poored for weeks. Oh yeah, God,
it was hard.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
They were so Aspen and Cedar were so bonded though.
I don't think I've ever seen two cats as bonded
as those two were. I mean, more so than just siblings. Yeah,
they were, yeah, you know, and he was sad for
a long time afterwards.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Yeah, because through it, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Hard or anything. He didn't old cat yet, wildli cat.
What else can we add? How can we help our
pets through it?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
You can't fix it.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
No, you can't fix it. I think I have some
calming supplements that I have tried to use over Fourth
of July and New Year's that didn't really work. I
did give those two both seven in Hero for the
first couple of days. I don't know how much they worked,
(27:49):
but I figured they weren't going to hurt and I
was just going to give them the Hero. But since
he was getting treats, seven we hey and so she
got him to I offered them to the cats. But
the cats went ooh.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Poison cats.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So I don't know. I guess the first two or
three days I gave them to them, and then it
just seemed like they didn't need them. But the other
thing that I want to add is, if you're on Facebook,
there are several pet loss grief bereavement groups. Just do
a search on Facebook for pet loss or chests were
(28:31):
check with your humane society the groups are. You know,
I don't think we see it as much anymore, but
there's a lot of people who still go your grieving
is just a dog or just a cat. I don't
think we're seeing as much of that, or maybe I
just don't hang out with those people anymore. But if
it would help you to talk to other people about it.
(28:53):
There's sources available.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
And it's good to say did I make the right
decision and have people come back and go yet.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I've been through it enough. I wasn't questioning it. But
Kate and Patriots sure heard from me enough for a
few days, and I will admit the night before I
put bunts down, I did form a Facebook message group
and went back and forth with people, because sometimes it
is easier to talk out your process, talk out your thoughts.
(29:26):
I was pretty sure I was making the right decision
at the right time, but sometimes it's good to hear
from other people.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
It's a hard decision, and it should be a hard decision.
Oh yeah, but it is our final gift.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Our final gift, and I look upon it is my
and I'm not saying it in a negative term, but
my responsibility. If I'm going to own a dog or
a cat, I want to give them the best life
I can give them, whether that be a good quality food,
take them on road trips in the r V, getting
vet care when they need it, and making the right
(30:03):
choice at the end of their life. So my responsibility,
my gift, you know, just not wanting to see him suffer.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
As former vete, Yeah, that was the privilege to hang
on to a puffy dollar or or even some other
pitters and saying you've been well loved, it's time to
release you from your Beati.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
The veterinarian that came out to the house, I won't
say his name because I didn't ask his permission to
give his name out, so I won't. But he had
practiced veterinary medicine in a big city for forty years,
and he and his wife raised their family, their kids
in that big city, and when the kids were grown
(30:45):
and gone, he retired from active practice. They moved to
San Diego County. But he, as he said, he found
retirement wasn't for him, whether he was bored or whatever.
So he was thinking what he could do. He didn't
want to be a substitute vet for other clinics because
(31:06):
everybody does things their own way. So he looked at
pet hospice and in home musination. And my comment to
him was do you find it depressing sad? And he
said no, just the opposite. I'm helping a pet leave
this lifetime. And he said his wife does screen the
(31:26):
calls and if it sounds like someone is rushing it
or doing it for convenience. We're moving and can't take
the dog with us, he said. She kind of screens those,
but like me calling my dog has cancer. He's declining
rapidly as an evening a day and a half. He's
in pain, he's bleeding from the rectum. You know, those
(31:47):
are obviously the quote unquote the real calls. He says,
if I can help that pet leave this lifetime comfortably
and without pain, and if I can help the owner,
he says, no, it's not sad, and I'm going, oh
my god, You're gonna make me cry just for that.
(32:07):
So what I initially thought would be a terribly sad job,
you know, you look at it from a different point
of view. Yeah, yeah, that's the word he used, A privilege. Yeah,
all right, Well, we hope this wasn't too sad for you,
but we wanted to cover the bases both in the
last podcast in this one. Hopefully none of you will
be facing this right away eminently. Yeah, but hopefully it's
(32:35):
also giving you some things to think about. So that's it.
We'll see you next time. Bye, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Having a rough day, longing for the dog days of summer,
I think your fun fairy friend lives a dog's life,
well find out everything you're begging to know as pet
Life Radio presents It's a Doggy dog World with pet
expert and award winning author Liz Polita. Every dog has
his day, and you'll find out how to make your
(33:02):
dog's day fun and rewarding. Every week on demand only
on petlife radio dot com
Pet Life Radio, Let's Talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hi, Welcome to It's a Donkey Dog World. I'm your host,
Liz Polaika, and with me are my good friends Petro
BIRDAA and Kate Abbott Hog. And we're talking about a
little bit of a somber subject in this podcast. In
our previous one, if you listen to them consecutively, which
I know some of you listeners do, we talked about
(00:46):
the sad issue of losing a dog. I recently lost
my good boy Bones to cancer, and we discussed that
in that podcast as well as I mean, if you
love a dog, you're going to lose them, and we've
all lost dogs, multiple dogs, So we talked about that
and some of your options for singing it through what
(01:08):
to do afterwards. Today, what we want to talk about
is the changes you may see at home if you
have other dogs or cats at home. And this is
doggy dog World, but we all know we love cats too,
and most of us have cats, except for those of
us Kate who have terriers who cannot trust their dog
with a cat get them. But Patron I both have cats,
(01:32):
and I know a lot of dog owners do. So
we're going to talk about what happens to those pets
at home as they adjust to their new normal. And
I know with my situation, Bones was for lack of
a better term, and it's kind of outdated, but it's
still for lack of a better term. Bones was the
leader of the pack. He was the boss. He was
(01:55):
the instigator. He was the one that went through the
door first. He was the one that ran the fastest
and told the other dogs to chase him. He was
the one that decided. Basically, I won't say he was
a dictator, but he was definitely the leader. And in
the first few days after his passing, Hero, who was
(02:15):
the middle child, was lost, and there were a few
times I caught him standing in the middle of the
living room with his head down, just going, I don't
know what to do, just standing there with his head down.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Nobody's telling me what to do.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I don't know what to do. And I would tell him, Hero,
go lay down, and he would go, oh good, okay. Now,
Hero's a wonderful boy. He's not my brightest. He's not dumb,
but he's not my brightest. But the biggest thing is
he's not he's not competitive, and he's used to following
(02:51):
the leader, and he's definitely not the leader, and he's
not going to be seven. Who's the youngest? Is a
read looking at the potential of stepping up to being
the leader, which I would expect from the bitch anyway,
using bitch in the proper terminology, usually the bitches are
(03:11):
more dominant. Bumbs wasn't about to let her be more dominant.
But Hero will, Hero will probably be very happy to
have another leader. When you lost Walter, though, it was
a totally different dynamic.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well pretty much had a party.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Yeah, it's like, I don't think he was ever sad.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Dog is gone.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
He didn't listen. But you lost two in a short
period of time. He lost Katie not long after Walter.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Well, yeah, wasn't that long.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, Oh wow, time fly.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And Katie's again was I mean she was seventeen?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Yeah, I had order, but I took her in the
last three or four years.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Maybe maybe a little bit more than that four.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
But I knew her longer. Yeah, because she belonged to
a friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We'd all known Katie, and.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Then when my friend had to go into assisted living,
I took Katie and she was I mean I joked
that she was just a level above a potted plant.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
She was a sweet dog.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
She was a very sweet dog. And it didn't matter
how much she lost her hearing about everything. She could
still hear the refrigerator open.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I love that old dog selective hearing.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Once I built her a little wrap so she could
get up on the automan next to Virginia's chair and
be able to beg for food and get the occasional treat.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
She was thrilled.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
That was her throne.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
She was great.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
So that then she slipped and tore her acl and
it was quite painful, and at her age and with
associating heart.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And lung issues. No, they're like, nope, no, we're not
putting her under We're not putting her through rehab, et cetera,
et cetera. It's time. So it's kind of like, okay,
it wasn't sit around and go do I need to
decide now? Yeah? I had to because she wasn't pain
and pain feels, you know, for a day or two
or something.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So I did take her.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Home for twenty four hours, and she had all of
the chicken chi could eat.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Show up, show up to heaven with a full coming,
because you know, they might not feed her there.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
She had been showing kidney issues, so they had her
on a low protein diet, which was not making her happy. Yeah,
so I was like, here, have all the protein you
missed in the last year. And I continued to give
her pieces of boiled chicken as they put the line
in and then the initial sedative and the time, and
(05:53):
she was just still munching away.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Gone, yeah, she better talk to bones.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So from slip to making the veterinary appointment, you know,
it was twenty four hours. Yeah, and yeah, it's still
I mean, she stayed on that little perch, but it's
still left a gap in the house, mainly.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
With the humans.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, more than Quilt. She did and Quilt just kind
of ignored each other. But it was a big change
for Virginia too, not to have some. And the day
before she slipped, she would still scream if she didn't
feel like she was getting a treat to screams that
she could do. So, yeah, even even a potted plant
can leave a hole in the house.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
Maybe with Kiley, even though she was a Pomeranian, she
was still a boss dog of aravails. Oh yeah, and
her little place was right between the pillows on my bed.
And for a while because Ponto sleeps next to me,
has to touch me. But he probably from good five
to seven days. He you know, he would always.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
Knew that was her spot, so he would sleep a
little bit more over. But it took him a while
to get closer and then take over her.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Spot because surely she was hiding under the covers. Or yeah, well,
Bones is passing besides leaving Hero feeling kind of lost.
My big orange cat. Kirk missed him. The kitten didn't.
Seven didn't not really, they're both younger. Bones was the adult,
(07:31):
was not involved in raising the kitten where his Hero was.
The kitten's of foster Phil by the way, So I
got her at two days old and fostered her and
then she never left because Kirk the cat chose her.
But Kirk wandered the house for a couple days, I think,
or at a couple different times, meowing. He'd stop in
(07:51):
a room and meow, nothing happened what he was looking for.
He'd go to another room and meow, come down the hallway,
and then it quit. But he did that several times
over two or three days. In fact, he did it
again last night. So he's looking he's searching for bones.
(08:12):
There's something missing, There's something missing.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, we had talked earlier about littermates. Virginia had littermates
puts Stormy and Albert.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
And at the age of fifteen, when Albert developed cancer
and it wasn't really treatable.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
I mean not without a lot of pain that she
didn't want to do for him, put him down. Stormy
was put down about six months later. They said heart issues,
but I think she just her heart literally failed her
without her brother, just gave it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, Patron and I have Facebook friends. Although did we
ever meet one of the English shepherd gathers. I don't
think so. Anyway. A woman and her husband who had
two English shepherds, and one of the English shepherds was
killed protecting their two English shepherds were littermates, sisters, and
(09:08):
the bolder one was protecting her house and family and
sister from a big mama moose and the moose killed her.
The surviving sister, who was the more subordinate one, passed
just months later, just curled up, went to sleep and
passed away. Was heartbroken, was so heartbroken. She witnessed it.
(09:32):
She witnessed what happened, witnessed that her sister was gone
like that tragically, and her owners tried everything to get
her involved in life again, but she just went to
sleep and passed, just gave up. Very tragic. And now
they have no dogs, they lost both of them.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
And break heart. The house is so empty.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well. She she sent me private messages about Bones the
whole time, from when I posted that I was going
to have to make a decision, all the way through
losing him, and then a couple of days after she
post off, and she says, I'm not trying to intrude.
I'm not trying to be She says, I know where
your heart is, and I'm going you lost two.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, so and for ourselves.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Today I got out of the shower and I had
been in a rush to get in and I had
dropped my black sweatpants.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Oh yes, so Walter.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I came out of the shower and I was My
first thought was he was there waiting, as that was
where he waited for me. Yeah, And it took a
minute from my brain to go, oh no, this closed, ah,
so it'll sneak up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
My big thing that I saw immediately was in I'm
mid range asperger, so I count anyway. I count things.
I I order things, and so I put things in order.
So the dog's going outside, one two three, I don't
say bones hero seven. I go one, two, three, three
(11:11):
dogs outside. Everybody's accounted for. Open the door to let
them in. One two three, All three dogs are counted for.
All three dogs are inside. And I do it mentally.
And it was one two and coming in one too,
And that was so wrong. Yeah, there was one missing.
Maybe if I wasn't counting, but then I'm sure it'd
(11:33):
still be the dog's name. But it was one two
or feeding time or feeding time getting out the footballs.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
It's just like brain memory, muscle memory.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You just take out your food balls. You're like, oh,
I told you that. The next day, I had to
put one of the food balls away in the cupboard
because for dinner that night, for breakfast the next morning,
I got out three balls, and that in itself is
kind of shocked when you go, no, I only need two,
And it was almost a little hurtful to pull out
(12:07):
three and not need one. Right, Yeah, So I put
it away. So now there's only two with the food
and I only put two in the RV for the
upcoming trip because it's I only need one in a
water bowl. Yeah, it's habit things that I think hit
the most because those are the things you're not thinking
(12:28):
about their habit and that leaves that hole.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yep, it's true for people. I mean I can after
my mom passed, I can still remember waking up and
thinking I heard her alarm her bed an go on,
Oh yeah, yeah, I've gotta rush over her. No I don't. Yeah, okay,
but try to go back to sleep with their heartcoming.
Oh yeah, yeah, and you know, still setting a place
(12:51):
for someone at the table, things like that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah. And with Pop being gone, it's just me and
the dogs and the cats. So yeah, they're they're my family.
All right. Well, we need to take a break for
our sponsors, so hold on. We've got a lot more
to talk about when we get back.
Speaker 8 (13:11):
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(13:31):
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Julianne Corbin calls attention to the difficulties unique to the
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(13:53):
towards coming to a place of peace and healing. For
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(14:16):
for purchase on Amazon and other major book retailers.
Speaker 7 (14:21):
So what's your reaction, Kate when you hear Ben and
Jerry's now has dog treats?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Now, I won't have to share my ice cream with
them anymore, because you know, anybody comes near me when
I'm meeting my Ben and Jerry's, They're likely to get
growled at.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I think it's a cool idea. I've sometimes made my
dog's frozen treats or gotten some that are commercially available,
but considering how much I love Ben and Jerry's, it's
about time my puppy dog's got to enjoy that as well.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
And my favorite one is the cherry Garcia.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, I'll growl anybody comes near me, I'll meet me
that I'm a chunky monkey freak.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I like that that way.
Speaker 7 (15:02):
But also I love peanut butter. And did you know
that one of the dog you dog flavors is paunch.
It has peanut butter and pretzels.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Ooh, and Rosie has pumpkin and many cookies. That's am
I ni. I'm sure it has lots of cookies too,
but they're a little small cookies and they're many cookies
and pumpkin, which I do give my boy pumpkin in
his dinner, so this would actually been a nicer way
for him to get it.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
Yeah, so I think I would qualify mine in the
freezer is my ice cream. And then I have to
label the dog's version of Ben and Jerry's as the
Frozen Treat Doggy Dessert.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And one way you can tell is instead of the
black and white cow on the front of the little container,
it's a black and white dog for the dog trees
so you can tell which one is which because it's
their dog. Frozen treats are are not designed for humans,
made with human quality ingredients, but not designed for humans,
(15:58):
so you do want to keep them separate. And I
can only get my boy a little bit in my
dear of my own ice cream, my Ben and Jerry's
ice cream, because yeah, it doesn't always set well with him,
but now he has his own, He's gonna have.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
His own, all right.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
So go out there, buy some for your furry little
friend there and enjoy together.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Enjoy.
Speaker 8 (16:16):
Let's talk past Let's pet Talbot Headline.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Radio, petlve radio dot com. We know you're begging for more,
so back to It's a Doggy Dog World with your
fetching hosts Liz Pelika and this week's co hosts, Kate
Abbot and Patri Burke.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Welcome back to It's a Doggy Dog World. This is
your host Liz Pelika with my good friends Patri Burke
and Kate Abbot. So what can we do to help
the dogs? I know one of the things I've done
with mine two is taking them with me a little
bit more. They're here at the trading center. Now, I
took him to your house earlier, even though they weren't
(16:59):
there to go for a run. I took them with
me if I went somewhere the last several days, because
it hasn't even been a week yet. The last several days,
as long as I wasn't going to leave the car
because it's too hot to leave them in the car.
If I was going to Starbucks to get iced tea,
I took him with me. Where is most of the time,
(17:22):
fifty to fifty, I'll take them or leave them home.
So I have been taking them with me a little
bit more. But I can't keep doing that because I
don't want them to expect to go every time.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And I do think as much as possible your routines
for them as well. Yeah, and knowing what they need.
Like you said, you told Hero what to do right
in the absence of bone selling them what to do right.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And I did it kindly. I didn't owe for Pietzigs
go lay down. It was it was very gently Hero.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
You can go lay down and find that new normal.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
You did ask me one time, do you think dog's
grief each other? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, there's no question. Yes, Yeah, they grieve. They know
the difference. Well, there's some of them.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Well, there is some emotion there.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, I well wasn't the only one that threw a
party when Paul's and my old girl Dax, who was
a bitch and all of the definitions of the word
ten times ten. Well she met Kate one day. She
thought it was deserved. But yeah, Dax was a bitch
(18:35):
in all of the definitions of the word. When she passed,
and she was an old girl, she was fourteen, yeah years.
She was an old girl. And when it was time
for her to go, it was time for her to go,
except my husband had a hard time letting her go.
She was Paul's dog when she passed. But she threw
(18:56):
a party, but she was She ran, but sheer ragged.
She was a bitch to him. When we'd come home
from the training yard. I'd walk in the door from
the garage. He would stick his head around and go,
where is she? And sometimes she would charge at him,
sometimes she wouldn't. If she did, I step between her
and Bashir and he'd hide behind me. And Basher was
(19:19):
not a dog to hide. He didn't hide from anybody
else in this world except for her. When she passed,
he threw a party. He was a very happy dog,
and deservedly so.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
She was a dog who'd let you know when it
was time.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yes, But it took Paul a couple months after that
to let her go. I couldn't make the decision for him.
He had to let her go, but she was very
clear when it was time. But she was incontinent and
she hated it. She couldn't control her ladder when she slept.
I'd put potty pads under her, put diapers on her.
(19:58):
Oh God, she hated the diapers. And finally I told Paul,
you have to let her go because I went to
put the diapers on her and she almost bit me.
She snapped at me. She could have bit me if
she wanted to, but she was just saying enough, I
don't like this, I don't want this. I can't help it.
I don't want And so I didn't and I put
(20:20):
Poddy paths on her. But I told Paul, I said, look,
she's miserable. So and I still had to take her
to the met He couldn't do it. The softest man
on the face of the planet, he never ever thirty
seven years of marriage and he never ever took one
of the dogs in the softest man ever have Marie.
So but anyway, how can we help the dogs keep
(20:43):
him on as regular schedule as we can? But yeah, yeah,
and don't get upset.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
If they agreed, yeah, might be wandering around looking a
little lost.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Bounce was lost when passed. Of course, when sheer pass
that made Bones an only dog, and he was not
at all happy being an only dog. Thankfully, Hero's letter
had already been born, and so it was only a
couple of months, y're a month and a half I think,
until we went out and got Hero from the breeder.
But Bones was not happy being an only dog and
(21:18):
was actually a little fearful. And for as confidence as
he was, that was that was very sad to see
with Kirk with the cat. I dug out some cat toys.
I dug out some catnip for him. He's one of
those cats that likes catnip. Cat nip in the middle
of the tile floor and he's rolling it in and purring.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
But knowing who they are before, I don't want to say,
don't project your own grief upon them, but wait and
let them show you.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, you know you were grieving for Bones before.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Goodbye. Trying to smuggle with him. Yeah, and he was
like no that yeah, yeah, yeah, give him the space
to tell you what they need about that. That's so big.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, when you lost Shasta, you had Teddy at home.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Right, I had Conna and Teddy and Teddy.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
ConA was the one that missed her, yeah, the most.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Had he lost his vision at that point he did,
so he was blind and missing hers, and Teddy was
a big dufis and no help at all. Yeah. I
seem to remember ConA grieving her.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Yeah, because she did help him around the house, you know,
kind of her little guide dog.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
And I my limited scope.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I would say that it really has helped the dogs
the whole household to see the body.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yes, and that's one reason why I one of my
several reasons of why I had the vet come to
the house for bones.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
And then my shastak. We took ConA and Writer.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
The two dogs who were closest to her.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Yeah, yeah, I did not you?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Was it you?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Who was it that had taken a dog? Padam pit
the sleep came back without the Dotta and the other
one Ursa wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Oh no, that was Careber, our last German, our last
German shepherd Michi. Paul was still in the Marine Corps,
was deployed to the field his dog, of course, his dog.
While he's gone. Michi went into multi organ failure and
kidney's liver is like his body just started to shut down.
(23:38):
I already had a pretty good idea what was happening,
but I threw him in the car, went to the veterinarian,
and after the exam, the veterinarian told me what was
going on, and I could see it. Michi was just
collapsed and was he was rapidly fading, so we just
eased him on. I came home without him and care Beer,
(23:59):
my Australian shepherd, who was only about six months old
at the time, blamed the car, Silver SUPERU station Wagon.
Blamed the car, and I actually had to get rid
of that car because if I forced him in the car,
if I picked him up and put him in the car,
he shook like he was on a vibrating platform. He
(24:21):
shook and drooled and was scared to death. If I
put him in somebody else's car, he was absolutely fine.
He blamed that car, and it sounds silly, but I
actually sold that car and got another car. Because he
wouldn't get over it. That car was dangerous and took
(24:42):
his buddy away, and his buddy never came home. Ye,
grief is a funny thing. It can be strange for people,
but never mind if you don't necessarily understand what has happened.
Ursa was another one. I made the mistake of taking
her to the vet and didn't bring it anybody with me,
and the dogs at home had a really hard time.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
I had a cat I took when I was a
vet tech. I didn't there's something wrong. Took him in
that morning. We actually couldn't find anything wrong. Just as
we were closing the clinic for the day, he had
a brain aneurysm burst.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh oh oh, just.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And I still regret that I did not take his
body home. I left it there for kickoff. And the
other cat was that the cat that died was like
his baby bottle raised and so he just was lost. Yeah,
(25:41):
he yowed and searched and looked stared at me accusingly.
So yeah, I really wish I had been that I
had shown you.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I've had over the years three cats actually die at
home peacefully and they're sleep And never had a dog
do it. But I've had three cats do it, and
in all three cases it was startling to me, But
it was good for the other cats at home because
in all three cases, well in two of the cases,
(26:11):
Xena was the only cat when I lost her, but
the other two cats always happens on my bed, But
the other cats were all curled up with them, you know,
with Flea and Tigger. Both the other cats were with them,
and it was like, oh my god, that's so wonderful,
and that seems to ease the grief a little bit.
(26:32):
They were there with them. Yeah, heartbreaking me, douse. That
was the same way I had little mates and the.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
Female had tragically passed and poored for weeks. Oh yeah, God,
it was hard.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
They were so Aspen and Cedar were so bonded though.
I don't think I've ever seen two cats as bonded
as those two were. I mean, more so than just siblings. Yeah,
they were, yeah, you know, and he was sad for
a long time afterwards.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Yeah, because through it, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Hard or anything. He didn't old cat yet, wildli cat.
What else can we add? How can we help our
pets through it?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
You can't fix it.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
No, you can't fix it. I think I have some
calming supplements that I have tried to use over Fourth
of July and New Year's that didn't really work. I
did give those two both seven in Hero for the
first couple of days. I don't know how much they worked,
(27:49):
but I figured they weren't going to hurt and I
was just going to give them the Hero. But since
he was getting treats, seven we hey and so she
got him to I offered them to the cats. But
the cats went ooh.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Poison cats.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So I don't know. I guess the first two or
three days I gave them to them, and then it
just seemed like they didn't need them. But the other
thing that I want to add is, if you're on Facebook,
there are several pet loss grief bereavement groups. Just do
a search on Facebook for pet loss or chests were
(28:31):
check with your humane society the groups are. You know,
I don't think we see it as much anymore, but
there's a lot of people who still go your grieving
is just a dog or just a cat. I don't
think we're seeing as much of that, or maybe I
just don't hang out with those people anymore. But if
it would help you to talk to other people about it.
(28:53):
There's sources available.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
And it's good to say did I make the right
decision and have people come back and go yet.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I've been through it enough. I wasn't questioning it. But
Kate and Patriots sure heard from me enough for a
few days, and I will admit the night before I
put bunts down, I did form a Facebook message group
and went back and forth with people, because sometimes it
is easier to talk out your process, talk out your thoughts.
(29:26):
I was pretty sure I was making the right decision
at the right time, but sometimes it's good to hear
from other people.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
It's a hard decision, and it should be a hard decision.
Oh yeah, but it is our final gift.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Our final gift, and I look upon it is my
and I'm not saying it in a negative term, but
my responsibility. If I'm going to own a dog or
a cat, I want to give them the best life
I can give them, whether that be a good quality food,
take them on road trips in the r V, getting
vet care when they need it, and making the right
(30:03):
choice at the end of their life. So my responsibility,
my gift, you know, just not wanting to see him suffer.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
As former vete, Yeah, that was the privilege to hang
on to a puffy dollar or or even some other
pitters and saying you've been well loved, it's time to
release you from your Beati.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
The veterinarian that came out to the house, I won't
say his name because I didn't ask his permission to
give his name out, so I won't. But he had
practiced veterinary medicine in a big city for forty years,
and he and his wife raised their family, their kids
in that big city, and when the kids were grown
(30:45):
and gone, he retired from active practice. They moved to
San Diego County. But he, as he said, he found
retirement wasn't for him, whether he was bored or whatever.
So he was thinking what he could do. He didn't
want to be a substitute vet for other clinics because
(31:06):
everybody does things their own way. So he looked at
pet hospice and in home musination. And my comment to
him was do you find it depressing sad? And he
said no, just the opposite. I'm helping a pet leave
this lifetime. And he said his wife does screen the
(31:26):
calls and if it sounds like someone is rushing it
or doing it for convenience. We're moving and can't take
the dog with us, he said. She kind of screens those,
but like me calling my dog has cancer. He's declining
rapidly as an evening a day and a half. He's
in pain, he's bleeding from the rectum. You know, those
(31:47):
are obviously the quote unquote the real calls. He says,
if I can help that pet leave this lifetime comfortably
and without pain, and if I can help the owner,
he says, no, it's not sad, and I'm going, oh
my god, You're gonna make me cry just for that.
(32:07):
So what I initially thought would be a terribly sad job,
you know, you look at it from a different point
of view. Yeah, yeah, that's the word he used, A privilege. Yeah,
all right, Well, we hope this wasn't too sad for you,
but we wanted to cover the bases both in the
last podcast in this one. Hopefully none of you will
be facing this right away eminently. Yeah, but hopefully it's
(32:35):
also giving you some things to think about. So that's it.
We'll see you next time. Bye, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Having a rough day, longing for the dog days of summer,
I think your fun fairy friend lives a dog's life,
well find out everything you're begging to know as pet
Life Radio presents It's a Doggy dog World with pet
expert and award winning author Liz Polita. Every dog has
his day, and you'll find out how to make your
(33:02):
dog's day fun and rewarding. Every week on demand only
on petlife radio dot com
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