Today is a little bit more of a personal post as to why I haven't blogged much this week. I apologise for not blogging much but hopefully you will all understand.
My dog was my best friend and my only brother. I've had him since I was 4 years old and now I'm turning 18 this year so I don't remember life before Jaffa.
Jaffa has suffered from a disease called cushings since he was about 6 years old. Cushing’s Disease is caused by a excess of the hormone cortisol in the blood. In the simplest of terms, a dog is slowly poisoned by cortisol when the mechanisms in his body that are meant to prevent this excess fail. Normally, this excess is caused by pituitary tumors, adrenal gland atrophy or adrenal tumors, or veterinary interference. In Jaffa's case, he developed many non cancerous tumours over the years. If you stroked him you could feel all the lumps and bumps across his little body. We were very lucky to have the right medication for Jaffa which unfortunately couldn't prevent the lumps or cure the disease as it is uncurable, but could prolong his life and slow down the process. On the medication, Jaffa remained healthy and happy for much longer than he would have without it.
Unfortunately old age doesn't come itself, his age caught up with him and so did his cushings disease. Over the past few weeks, Jaffa became weak and exhausted. He could barley stand up without his legs collapsing, he couldn't make it outside by himself, he lost control of his bladder, and he stopped eating. The suffering was unbearable for me and my family to watch so we made the extremely tough decision to put him to sleep before things would become any worse for him.
We made an appointment for the vet to come to the house on Friday 4th October at 2.30 to give Jaffa a gentle injection to end his suffering. The night before I was worried we were doing the wrong thing, but then Jaffa took a funny turn, completely collapsed and starting foaming from his mouth and shaking. Watching him go through that was tough enough and settled my mind that giving him the injection was the kindest thing to do.
Jaffa passed yesterday at 2.30pm while my dad held him in his arms. It was completely heartbreaking for us all and I can't help but cry my eyes out writing this. Although it is extremely tough for us, I'd rather we all suffer than him.
When me and my dad used to fight (not seriously just messing around) Jaffa used to stand in front of me protecting me and growl and snap at my dad. It was the cutest thing ever knowing I had someone who would protect me if I was ever to come to harm.
Jaffa used to constantly follow me around the house. It sounds like a silly little thing but if I stood up, he stood up. If I walked to the kitchen, he wouldn't be far behind. If I went upstairs, he would sit at the bottom until I came down again.
He used to always sit on my feet. Sounds weird again but he would always do it. Not sure why. I'm constantly cold so there's a theory in my family he was trying to keep me cozy. One day he even lay right across he back of my legs, and my mum tried to snap a picture just as he sat up.
Every Christmas, Jaffa used to unwrap presents. For real. He would nuzzle his nose into gifts, paw at them until he could pull them out. This Christmas is going to be so hard without him.
His live for every human food. Literally he would eat everything and anything. From lollys, to ice cream, to curry, to his absolute favourite kit kats, he was a lover of food. And just for the record, I don't believe for one single second that chocolate is bad for dogs unless that is all they eat. Jaffa loved a bit of chocolate every now and then and still lived to 14.
There are some other memories which I shall kindly keep to myself. It's breaking my heart to know he's gone but I know he's a lot more peaceful in heaven.
I hope you all understand why I haven't been blogging much. I'm not really sure when I'll get back to regular blogging, probably just whenever I feel ready. It's still very fresh right now but hopefully things will get better soon.
Thank you for all understanding.
Katie
Xox
RIP JAFFA
0 comments:
Post a Comment