We Lost Our Billy :(

It seems like just about every other week one of the blogs that I follow is doing a post similar to this. I guess now it's my turn. Yesterday we had to let our Billy go. We are heartbroken.

We always told him he was soooo photogenic

Billy was one of my parent's cocker spaniels. And on Saturday morning my sister and I went out to their house to take care of him and his sister, Roxie, for the week. My parent's had flown out that morning for a long over-due vacation to GA. When I got to the house Billy didn't come racing to the door like usual. And I finally found him in a downstairs bedroom. He was shaking so bad that his teeth were chattering.

He always had to have a squeaky with him, and had such great eyelashes

All day Saturday he wouldn't move. We tried to keep him as comfy as possible, and gave him pain meds that the vet gave my mom before they left because they suspected he had pulled a muscle in his back.

But by Saturday night Angie and I decided to drive him into Minneapolis to the ER vet. By then he was dragging his hind legs!

It still never entered my mind that things were that serious. I thought he didn't want to put weight on his legs...not that he COULDN'T put weight on them.

Baby Bill was the cutest thing ever!

But the vet took one look and said that our options were to take him to the

 U of MN for a $5000.00 surgery or to put him to sleep, because he had slipped a disc in his back and was now paralyzed. Even with the surgery it would be a 50/50 chance of recovery.

Puppy Billy had green eyes and was always tilting his head to try and understand you.

Angie and I had to call our parents from the vet's room with Billy on the table and tell them what was going on. With them a million miles away, on day one of their vacation. Absolutely heartbreaking.

When Billy was a puppy he was in the backyard when a large crack of thunder struck. It changed him for good. He was always scared of everything after that. You could drop a fork on the kitchen floor and he would bolt. So because of this, he was a chicken every year for Halloween.

Angie's cocker Ernie as a pumpkin, Roxie the witch, and Billy...our chicken!

It was too sudden for all of us. So we had the vet give him a shot to help with his pain, stronger pills for the weekend, and we took him home.

For the next 48 hours Angie and I cared for him around the clock. We bought him a big therapeutic dog bed, and had to surround him with puppy pads because he had no bladder control.

Billy and Me. His paws were absolutely beautiful!  And we used to tease him because he had the teeniest little "pee-pee" for being such a large cocker spaniel. LOL

The vet said that once in a blue moon the anti-inflammatory can take enough pressure off of the spine and dogs like this can get better. So we had a tiny bit of hope. And we really wanted my parents to be able to say goodbye to him if that's what it came down to.

But by Monday night it was clear that he was miserable. :(

And we couldn't stand to see him suffer any longer. So yesterday morning we were at the vet right when they opened.

Billy was only 7, and this was just so sudden for us. My parent's last cocker spaniel (the one I grew up with) lived to be 15.5 years old.

I can't stop crying today. It's just gut-wrenching. I want to go back in time. Have a do-over. Never let him jump off the bed or couch!

My niece and nephew came over yesterday, and seeing them immediately puts things into perspective though. This was a loss, but it's the kind of loss that we can recover from.

We love you Bill-Boy!

xo Wellie, Ernie, Roxie, and Your Family