When you foster dogs you do expect to lose them. You expect to give them up. But those losses are happy losses as they go to a new family that will love them even more than you did. Losing them in this way was not even a consideration for me.
Declan came to us when he was about 6 having been born into rescue (Ratbone Rescues). His mama was a pregnant rescue. He spent his first six years in the home of his special person- a man who died 5 years after his adoption. The wife struggled to keep him but ultimately her work scheduled won and he became my foster in March 2013 and was adopted again in December 2013. He came back to us in Dec 2016 and within a couple weeks was in the vet. Two very expensive bouts of treatment, emergency room visits, test, surgeries, and treatment found nothing specific but labeled acute gastroenteritis (which I now believe was probably a secondary issue caused by pain).
Yesterday we saw a neurologist who narrowed down to only two possibilities - neither with good outcomes even with extensive treatment. The possibility of a normal life where he could walk, raise a leg to pee, or go through a dog door were none. More important, he would continue to degrade and need constant pain management. We had to let him go. We stopped on the way home to our vet for him to enjoy a lunch of Wendy's chicken nuggets.
Our vet was wonderful. She said a little prayer stating that he had made his way back to his true family to be with us during this time in his life. He fell asleep in my arms, much as he had many other nights, and drifted away peacefully.
Ours March 2013 - Dec 2013 and Dec 2016 - May 2017
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