We love you Chelsea!

For those of you who read my blog and are not on Facebook...

My 16 year old dog, Chelsea died tonight. I had her for 12 years and she was a very loving, sweet dog. Last summer her vet found a tumor near her stomach but said with her age there wasn't really anything to do for it. She probably couldn't survive anestesia or any kind of surgery to test or remove it.

She did well with it for a whole year and started losing weight at the beginning of the summer. She lost a lot of weight fast but still seemed happy and acted fine. It was all in the last 2 weeks that it got really bad. She either developed a new tumor in her mouth or her vet said it could've been the same one from her stomach that grew all the way through her body and into her mouth.

Just in the last 2 weeks, that tumor in her mouth grew a lot and started bleeding. She seemed to lose more weight and wasn't eating well. We switched to canned food and she did ok with that but only for about 3 days before she wouldn't eat that well either.

She was losing strength I'm sure because of the weight loss. She had a hard time standing on the kitchen tile after sleeping for a long time.

I think the final breaking point was Saturday night when she started breathing heavy. (And the bleeding from her tumor in her mouth that started pretty consistently Friday night.)

With all of this we knew her time was coming very soon and took her to the vet yesterday (Monday.) He suggested we think about putting her down withing the next 2-3 days and said he would be surprised if she made it for 2 more weeks. I was on the fence about it. I knew it would be best to put her down, but I just could not find peace in that decision. I knew she needed to go and just prayed that it would happen naturally, peacefully, and very soon so she wouldn't suffer or go on like that for long. I decided this afternoon that I just could not put her down and would let her go on her own.

Tonight after work, Andy let her out to the bathroom and when we went to let her in she had died. She wasn't alone. Bailey and Daisy were out there with her. She was in the comfort of her home. Andy and I were home and there was no crying or anything so I know she went peacefully.

I'm so thankful it happened the way it did and that I was able to sit outside with her last night and pet her and love on her for a while. I haven't been able to do that since she started bleeding so much. I will miss her so much but am glad she's not uncomfortable anymore and that it didn't get really painful for her. (At least I don't think it did because she never cried or whimpered or anything like she was in any pain.)

I know most of you don't care to read all the details of all this but it's very theraputic for me to "journal" about it.

I love you Chelsea and will miss you!