Hi you all,

We had to put down our old cattle dog Spike today, this morning, she was 16 1/2 years old. We had rescued her from the pound when she was 3 months old, she had been returned for snapping at somebody's child. It was really nothing, she was a puppy and that is what they do... we gave her a full, long life but sadly today was the day she had to die. She was just simply old, and actually if we had not put her down today I am positive she would have died on her own by this evening - so we gave her every last second we could. She lived long, and still this is hard and very very sad, we will miss her so much. She saved my life once by scaring off a mountain lion while we were out fishing, she thought she was invincible - those darn cattle dogs! they think they own the world.

This is so strange too: it is exactly one year to the day today that we lost our other dog, the love of my life, my Jakeybug who is my avatar. One year exactly today, and today Spike was actually dying on her own, we didn't plan this, it was just her time today of all days. What is so weird also is that a day ago I had just run out of her special kidney diet dog food, and also I had just given her her last prescription arthritis pill -- and I had given a neighbor a random number of pills from my bottle so she could try it on her old dog a few weeks ago -- but it worked out that what we had left was EXACTLY the number we needed before Spike went into a sharp decline night before last and could not eat or drink or rouse anymore.

One year to the day that my other dog died, and exactly at the end of her bag of special diet and her medicine....

I think somebody was calling her home.

So sorry for the loss of Spike. 16 1/2 years is a long time since they are such a big part of the family. I think you are right and someone was calling her home. Even though I know you must be missing her there is something amazing with her going on the same day as your Jakeybug. Maybe it was a little sign to you, something comforting, Jakeybug and Spike are together now.

Hi samhaincat,

Thank you so much for your reply -- it is very comforting to me to think that maybe it is indeed a sign, maybe when we lose them it's for a reason and not just random.

I haven't mentioned it on here before, but when Jake died I called the lady who bred him and sold him to me because I wanted to get another dog just like him and was hoping she might have one. She told me she had stopped breeding them and also that they had just had to put Jake's mother down about 6 weeks earlier, she was 2 years older than he was.

But what she told me next really blew me away: she said her son had just drowned a few weeks earlier, he was in the river swimming and they still had not found his body. He was in his late teens, and actually when we had gone to pick up Jake as a little puppy her son was there playing with him, he was the last puppy to go, and her son was only about 4 or 5 years old at the time. Her son was in most of the 'baby' puppy snapshots that she had sent me.

My Jake died very suddenly, had a fatal seizure out of the blue; he was totally healthy till that night he just dropped.
He lasted a week after but the brain damage was immense and killed him in the end.

so yeah, I am really starting to believe things happen for a reason, we get called back home when it is time even if maybe the ones left behind can't understand why.

Dear Jake and Spike's mom,

I remember that you and I lost Jake and Shiloh pretty close to one another. I also remember when I first joined here, you said so many helpful and comforting things to me and I wanted to thank you for that.

Losing another furbaby so close to the other is such a difficult thing. When I lost Hobbie in May I was just devastated. I felt like my two special girls had been taken from me in such a short period of time. Hobbie's passing also opened many of my Shiloh wounds that were well on their way to healing. I went through a variety of different emotions...I felt guilty because I was grieving for Hobbie and not Shiloh, then I'd feel guilty because I was grieving for Shiloh and not Hobbie, then my emotions just turned off...it was like I was overloaded and could no longer feel anything. It took a while, but I've gotten to a point where I've learned how to grieve for them seperately sometimes, and sometimes together. All of this to say, you may find in the next several days a relapse of your grief over Jake intermixed with your grief over Spike. If that happens, try not to feel guilty...it really is normal.

I'm so sorry for your loss of Spike. It sounds like you gave her a wonderful life. I had goosebumps as I read about how you ran out of everything right before she died. Amazing. I think you're right...she was called home. I also think there's a message for you in all of that...You sent Spike home at the exact moment you were supposed to. So many of us agonize over whether or not we made the right decision....I think you had a sign...any other decision besides the one you made would have been the wrong one.

You're in my thoughts as you deal with Spike's passing and Jake's 1 year anniversary.
Hugs,
Kathleen

PS - I tried to post this response last night, but for what ever reason I kept getting bumped off the site.