On September 19th our wonderful and loyal puppy, Ty, passed away. On Friday the 10th Porter went out to play with him and he wouldn't get up. It took me, Connor and Porter to get him to the van. I took him to the vet and we found a wound, that being an outside dog we just hadn't seen under his fur. The problem is, being an outside dog the flies did. He ended up with maggots, which made him VERY sick. The last thing Porter said to me when I left the house was, "Don't you let them put my dog down!" So I left Ty at the vet's office and came home with a vet bill we couldn't really afford but not knowing what else to do. They wanted to keep him another night but we just couldn't afford it. So we brought him home late Saturday night and did our best to take care of him. He seemed to be getting better and then he started associating all food with pills and quit eating. We tried all kinds of things. And then he quit drinking. We knew we were loosing him. Jeron was up half the night with him Saturday night. He got up Sunday morning to go to his meeting and he was gone. We got the boys up and told them.
Porter was just 3 years old when we got him. He was just a part of the family. When we brought Emma home from the hospital he would check the bassinet and if she was in it he would lay down in front of it. Maycie was never afraid of him. She would go after him with all the love she had in her and he always let her. She never left the house without yelling, "Bye Ty!" the whole time he was sick! A few days after he died she went to the back window looking for him.
We did some checking and found out that because he died at home we could bury him ourselves. You may remember a blog entry titled Ty's Ponds! Well, we never completely filled in one of the holes. We thought it fitting that be his final resting place. My dad came over and helped Jeron and the boys finish the hole Sunday evening. It was hard to say good bye to him. Every once in a while I'll be standing at my kitchen sink, look out the window and he's not there. When he first got sick I was just sure I would say no to another dog! Now the thought of Emma and Maycie never having what the boys had with Ty, well I just can't stand that. The time we had was priceless. I want that for our family again - one day!
I was upset with myself for not having more pictures of our sweet puppy but here are a few!
He loved his play time with his boys! They would throw the snow up in the air and he would try and catch it! He would do the same thing with bubbles! One of his favorite games with the boys was "Star Wars" The boys would get out their light sabers and pretend he was Darth Vador and chase him around the yard!
We found in the summer time the best way to make sure he always had enough water was this big black tub! He could get in to cool off and always had enough to drink!
With the maggots they had to shave him to make sure they got rid of them.
I knew just how sick he was when they were shaving him and he just lay there and let them.
He was a great dog and we all miss him very much!
