RIP Biscuit

I’m very sad to announce that our dog, Biscuit, has died.

Over the past week, he had been getting weaker, and was unable to stand starting on Thursday.  On Friday, he recovered a bit, and could walk around for part of the day, enough that I could take him outside for the last time.  After that, he never walked again.  He gradually lost strength and had difficulty getting to his food and water by Sunday.  Yesterday, he cried a lot, and although he could still get to his food and water, he didn’t stop crying.  This morning, he was very weak.  He didn’t lift his head at all.  When my wife checked on him at 8pm, he seemed to have enough energy to try bite her.  However, between 8pm and the time I got home at 10pm, he had died in his sleep.  When I got home, I went over to him to pet him while he slept, but found him to be rigid and not breathing.  We don’t know how old he was, maybe 17 or 18 years old.  He died of old age.

His cremation will take place on Thursday.

We will miss you, old boy.  Love you very much.

Biscuit. ? to February 19, 2013.

Our ailing dog and toddler

Just a quick update.  As I said before, our dog Biscuit wasn’t able to stand yesterday.  Well, this morning, he got up and started walking. He walked for much of the morning.  I even took him outside.

Feels great to be outside!

Although he was walking, he’s back to just laying down now.  He’ll have his ups and downs.

Tomoe’s update is less positive.  Last night, she had a fever of 38.6 degrees C.  Today, we went out shopping at Costco, and later went to a clinic because she was producing nothing but thin yellow liquid poop that smelled really bad.  She also slept a lot, although her fever has gone away.  So, what did we find out?  She has a stomach virus, what people commonly call the stomach flu.  She can’t eat any solid food until it’s cleared up.  And when she does have something, it can only be tea, watered down formula, and an ion water drink.

Sitting in the car we rented outside of the clinic.

Hopefully, Tomoe will be feeling good soon.

Walking

Walking.  It’s a thing we take for granted.  A baby can’t walk, but once they start, they’re called a toddler.  Tomoe is toddling along very well now.  We can let her walk around on her own outside, but she still follows us.  She doesn’t like being too far from us, so she’s always nearby.  Below are just a bunch of pictures of Tomoe walking.  The nighttime pictures are a bit blurry, though.

She walks like a penguin.

Eyes closed and blurry.

Coming through the door! That’s a big step, about 1 cm high!

It’s really hard to go over that step.

She’s inside!

Daytime photo is clear! She’s very colourful, isn’t she?

After a lot of walking, she was very sleepy.

As I said, we take walking for granted.  Another member of our family is having trouble walking.  It’s our dog, Biscuit.  My wife found him a few years ago as a stray.  What’s unusual is that he’s a purebred beagle, and you usually don’t find purebred stray dogs.  The vet said he was about 10 years old at the time, and it seemed like he was afraid of people and untrained.  It’s likely he was an outdoor dog that was never taken care of properly, so his owner just let him go.  He turned into a friendly dog, and became unusually quiet for a beagle.  I’ve rarely heard him bark.  If he was 10 years old when he was found, that would make him about 18 years old now.

Recently, he’d been losing a lot of weight and was getting unsteady on his feet.  This week, he had trouble walking.  Yesterday, he walked for the last time.  Today, whenever I’ve put him on his feet, his back legs gave out on him.  He has peed on the floor and was unable to move out of it.  We had to wipe him down with wet wipes and use a shampoo spray.  We’ve also put a dog diaper on him and got him a new bed that’s wrapped in plastic, so he won’t get it soaked.  We’re not sure how long he’ll last, but we hope to give him lots of love in his last days or weeks.

Biscuit on his new bed wearing a diaper.

Bubbling noises in the night

That’s the sound of Tomoe’s breathing while sleeping tonight.  Seems she’s caught a cold again.  It’s her second cold, and it’s not helping her sleep.

She’s been unable to breathe properly with her stuffed up nose.  She woke up crying after only a couple of hours, so we decided it was time to bring out the dreaded mucus clearing device, that snot sucker from hell.  She hates that thing. She struggles and fights so hard when it’s used, and she screams so loudly.  It takes both of us to hold her down to get it done.  Thankfully, after a while, she fell back to sleep.  I guess we’re in for a week of this.

Another noisy sleeper is our dog, Biscuit.  Although lately, he’s been feeling bad.  He’s pretty old now, though we don’t know how old.  My wife found him when he was already an older dog 8 years ago.  The vet guessed he was 10 years old.  That would make him about 18 now.  Up until a couple months ago, he was still fairly active, always walking around, going for walks with good energy.  However, he’d been losing weight.  He used to be a chubby dog, as recent as a year ago.  He is so skinny now.  He eats just as much, but has been losing weight so quickly.  He’s lost bladder control almost completely, as well.  His eyesight is extremely poor, and he can hardly hear.

In the past month, Biscuit hasn’t had his usual voracious appetite.  He used to vacuum up a bowl full of food in less than a minute.  Now, he leaves a lot of it and eats it slowly.  His hind legs have lost a lot of strength, so he stumbles around a lot.  He falls down regularly.  His face looks so much older now.  He walks into things, and can’t seem to find the door at times.

It’s sad seeing him like this.