Pets in, pets out

Pets In:

Sandis has finally fulfilled her wish for a black moor goldfish. She decided she wanted a goldfish and read every book under the sun about them. She researched every last miniscule aspect of fish ownership. She spent months saving her money and purchasing, bit by by, a home and decorations for her future fish.

We now have 2 black moors thanks to a very sweet boy and his mother who took Sandis shopping and purchased them for her as a birthday gift. The fish finally have names, The Doctor and TARDIS.

Stella also has a fish, a calico telescope eye named Bob. Bob was part of a deal struck with Sandis. Stella could have a fish in Sandis' tank due to helping pay for certain decorations. The fish had to be a telescope eye and not a black moor. Why? Because, according to leading experts, and Sandis, regular goldfish can see and move better and would out compete black moors for resources. So, it had to be a telescope eye, but not a black moor as that was Sandis choice.

Stella was 100% ok with the restrictions.

The Doctor and TARDIS. Strangely, The Doctor is the larger one. That TARDIS must be bigger on the inside ;)

Bob hiding in the corner. She's come out from hiding after a few days of getting used to things. Yes, it is Bob and it is a she. I've been told

The Doctor and TARDIS following each other about.

Pets partly out:

We have just one morning left of caring for one pup we're watching over the holidays. About a week left with morning visits with another set of dogs. Whew, almost done with the holiday pet sitting.

Pets out:

Done with all of the farm activities. No more horses, etc to feed and the extra dog staying with us has returned home. When I'm home for the day, I can stay home.

And it is with great sadness that I tell those who haven't been on Facebook lately that Sirius Black Walter had to be put down yesterday. It was a tough couple of days.

Sirius on his last walk.

Sandis saying goodbye

Stella says goodbye.

He was diagnosed with lymphoma back in October and has been pretty much fine since then. He was on a steroid but acted like his old self. About a week ago, he wasn't eating well. Talked to the vet and upped the steroid a bit. Couldn't go too high or it would cause internal bleeding, didn't want that either. Things went downhill, and downhill quickly. He went from not eating well to not eating at all. Got him some canned food and he decided, well, that was worth eating. At least for a day or two. Then his lymph nodes swelled to double in size in two days. Then doubled again overnight with not only the ones in his neck swelling, but those all over his body. He started having fluid retention on his neck and face. He was having trouble walking, breathing. All of this in less than a week!

So we took him for his last vet visit. He had just enough energy and happiness to wag his tail about going for a car ride. He sure loved car rides. Of course, he couldn't actually get into the car on his own, but once I put him in there, wagging commenced.

It was the right decision as he was so uncomfortable. There was nothing, absolutely nothing more we could do for him other than allow him to suffer. We'll miss our sweet, furry boy.

Thinking back on things since his diagnosis, I still think we did the right thing avoiding chemo. Lymphoma is not curable, only treatable. We may have given him a few more weeks or months, but not years, and how would those weeks/months have been? He had an awesome quality of life for his last few months (minus a couple days.) It is still difficult and sad, but the choices were the best we could do for him. Goodbye dear friend. We love you.

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