GOODBYE TO NICKY, TOO

We are having a very sad week here, and Mom seems all kind of depressed and weepy.  But I never cry tears out of my eyes, like Mom does, so what I mostly do is just go take a nap and try to forget about sad stuff for a while.

Anyway, Nicky lay around all day Thursday, and he didn't want to eat, and he only got up at bedtime to drink some water and pee on the carpet in the bedroom.  Then he stood there for a while, like he was nervous and didn't know what to do.  And he kept panting, so he probably had a fever again.  But when the rest of us went to bed, Nicky finally did, too.

Yesterday morning Mom had trouble getting Nicky to stand up so he could go to see Dr. Grigsby.  Nicky yelped and cried like he was in terrible pain, and he bit Mom on the arm.  But the bite was just a little one, like a hard nip that made a bruise.  Anyway, Mom put Nicky's muzzle on him so he couldn't bite her again, and then she managed to help him get up.

After that, she took him to VCA Mission to see Dr. Grigsby, and by the time they had been there 10 minutes, Nicky's temperature was already up to 107º.  The normal temperature for a dog is between 100º and 103º, and I know this because I looked it up.

Anyway, Mom and Dr. Grigsby had a long talk about Nicky, because neither one of them understood why Nicky felt so very sick and panicky, even though he only had what Dr. Grigsby said was a superficial wound.  And he also was peeing a lot in the house, which we couldn't explain why Nicky started doing, either.  Plus he would get stuck in a pattern of turning circles on the stair landing, like he couldn't stop doing it and go on up the stairs.  Last week Mom timed him, and he spent 10 minutes doing this.

So Dr. Grigsby said maybe Nicky was senile or maybe he had a brain tumor.  And the way to find out if he had a tumor was to do an MRI, which would cost about $2,000.  Mom said she could not afford that because she already just spent about $1,900 on Nicky's medical care.  Dr. Grigsby said she understood.

Then Mom asked if maybe Nicky should be put down, and Dr. Grigsby said she thought that was something to consider, because Nicky was not having any fun anymore.  So they talked about it, and Mom decided to do it.  And she stayed there with Nicky the whole time and told him she was sorry she hadn't been able to give him a happier life, and also she was sorry that Barry bit him all those times.

After that, Mom came home without Nicky, and our house seems even emptier than it did before.  It's just so weird having Mel and me be the only dogs here.  We are even more outnumbered by cats than we used to be.  Mom says she is not going to get any more dogs for now.  And she says she will never get a big dog again, such as a greyhound, even though she likes greyhounds a lot.  In the future, Mom is only going to get cute little dogs like me, that weigh 25 pounds or less!