Friday Five: I Miss Her Already!

A tough decision has come my way. When is the right time to put a dog to sleep? Yes, it's come to that.

We adopted Daisy on January 12, 2008. Her owner wasn't taking care of her, and was being borderline abusive. Daisy's owner moved in with her sister, and her sister decided that she didn't want the dog around any longer. My friend PJ, who is an angel on Earth for pets, called us and told us she wanted us to meet Sugar (her name at the time). We hadn't had a dog in 1 1/2 years, which is the longest I've ever been without a dog. We decided to adopt her, but we changed her name to Daisy.

About three months ago, Daisy started coughing and gagging. We took her to the vet who thought it was a cough. We were in and out of the vet with her for weeks. They finally decided to do an endoscopy because she wasn't getting any better and they needed to figure out what the issue was. They figured out that she had cancer.  Squamous Cell Carcinoma, to be exact.

We've tried different meds, but they're making her sick. We went back to the vet yesterday for an x-ray to see what is going on with her esophagus. It's OK, but now she's got pneumonia. The doctor gave us more meds, and told us it's just a band-aid and expects that the meds will only get her through the weekend.

I really thought we'd have more time with her. When the vet told us that the prognosis wasn't good, he wasn't kidding. Now we've got to decide when is the right time. I wish she could tell me.

Enjoy five of my favorite photos of Daisy.