She gave it everything she had … and then she let us know she was ready to go. Our beautiful blind Rottie, Helen, died yesterday afternoon. I took the photo in the morning, knowing this would be her last day. As always, she had her little tongue sticking out while she slept. She had battled cancer for a long time, having lost a rear leg to it a few years ago and then getting stricken with a different kind of cancer last year. Helen was currently on a second course of chemotherapy for her fibrosarcoma. In recent months she had been slowing down — a function of her age, hip dysplasia in her remaining rear leg, and no doubt the toll taken by the cancer and chemo. We don't really know how old she was, but we'd had her for eight years and she was no youngster when she first arrived. We guessed she was by now at least 12, if not older.
On Saturday morning she didn't want to get up, so we let her lie there on her bed in the dog room. She would drink but not eat, and by Saturday evening she would turn her nose away from food. We knew what all this meant. She was done and wanted to go. We sat with her for quite a while Saturday night, loving her up. On Sunday morning, she was still lying there peacefully, and again would drink but not eat that day. We kept the woodstove going all weekend in the dog room so she could be toasty warm on her bed, and she seemed very restful. But on Monday morning when we got up we noticed her breathing was suddenly heavier than normal, so I called our vet clinic in Whitefield and scheduled an appointment for euthanasia. We had hoped she would be able to pass away here at home, but only as long as she wasn't in any discomfort. Seeing the difference in her breathing changed that.
Alayne and I bundled her in fleece blankets and put her on the stretcher, then carried her out and slid the stretcher into the back seat of the truck. By the time I got to the clinic, I could sense Helen was slipping away. While I waited for our vet to come out to the truck, I sat in the back seat with her. I realized she was going, right then and there, and started to cry. (I just don't do this well.) When our vet, Dr. Chris Plumley, and vet tech Kim C., got to the truck, Chris asked, "Is she still with us?"
I looked at Helen, and said, "No, I think we're losing her." Then she raised her head slightly, took her final breaths … and she was gone.
Helen was one tough girl, and had overcome so much — blindness at an early age, then losing a leg, then fighting more cancer. Along the way she had more lumps and bumps removed than any dog I think we've ever had except blind Goldie.
At the ranch in Montana, she staked out Alayne's office as her den, and that's where she lived — morning, noon and night. Alayne said yesterday, "She was the best officemate ever." We had Helen in our fall 2010 print newsletter as one of our "ranch originals."
When we were first asked to take her, I will admit we were nervous. We were, like many people who don't know any better, intimidated by Rottweilers at the time. But we agreed to take her, and were always glad we did. As we've said many times, Helen was a perfect ambassador for the breed. On visitor days at the ranch, people would often freeze when they saw this big, 100 lb Rottie with her odd-looking eyes come around the corner. Helen was always a kisser, and there was no one she didn't like to smooch with. We'd laugh and say, "Don't worry, she's only going to lick you to death, so get prepared." Our visitors would relax, and here would come blind Helen, lumbering over to them, tongue at the ready. She helped change many minds that way.
Goodbye, Helen. We will always love you.
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Still 2nd place!
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It was thanks to all of your amazing votes that we won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the final Shelter Challenge of 2009, and we came in fourth nationwide in the first Shelter Challenge earlier this year, winning $3,000. So this is serious money and can really make a difference for our disabled animals! Please help us win this round of the contest by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
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