I lost my sweet 14 1/2 year old sheltie man on August 22. Maxie was diabetic for almost two years and was getting around kind of slowly but still had some spunk left in him. He was not blind. He was starting to get a little senile - would be ok during the day but pace around all night - I would grab him in the early mornings and take him to bed and just hold him close until he fell asleep. He was on all kinds of meds for the diabetes, colitis, hypothyroid, canine cognitive disorder.

Last Saturday after he ate I put him out on the poolside patio like I have every day, twice a day for the last 14 years. I left for just a moment to clean up his food area and went back to sit by the door to wait for him to come back. I noticed that the gate to our wrap around deck was closed - he liked to go out there to do his business. I stood up to see where he went and he was in the pool. My dog sitter was here at the time and we are both animal CPR certified so we worked on him for about 5 minutes but he was gone from the beginning. He was only out of my site for maybe 90 seconds. I am completely destroyed. I would never have put him in harms way. He never fell in the pool since he was a puppy.

He was floating right up under the lip of the pool. I am still not sure how he got there. There was no water in his lungs, so his vet thinks he might have had a heart attack or a stroke and just slumped in. I cannot get the picture of him out of my mind. I let my little boy down. I hope he forgives me.

Please help me. And please pray for my little Maxie man.

Cheryl

Cheryl, I am so sorry about Maxie. I know it's so hard but try and think about how good you cared for him over his long 14 1/2 years of life. Maxie would want you to be happy and not feel quilty for his death. I hope you find comfort in knowing that you will be with Makie again one day and that he is peaceful now.

Dear Cheryl, I am so sorry for your loss. I think your vet is most likely right that he had some sort of seizure & fell in to the pool. (no water in his lungs) Nothing I can say will ease your grief @ the moment. Please realise that you cant be beside the one you love every second of life, it's impossible. Don't let the "guilt" rob you of your need to grieve. I can't imagine the pain you are going thru right now. You are in a state of shock & you hve been traumatised by the incident. Go gently on yourself, your Maxie is ok but you aren't.....You know doubt will replay the scenario over & over again & as awful as that is you need to do it to process what has happened. Guilt is part of the process but is the most unhelpful part, as I hve just said to Chele on here, let the guilt go it it doesn't do anything positive for you.
Accident's happen.
Spend time here on this site, there is a heap of info to read thru plus all the other stories (which you may not be able to read right now) that will help you process your own 'stuff'.
This is a very difficult time for you, be kind to yourself.
{{{HUGS}}}
elaine

Cheryl, I am so sorry you lost Maxie. Please please don't feel guilty. If there was no water in his lungs he did not drown! He died a sudden and almost certainly painless death! No longer than you were gone he couldn't have struggled. He also couldn't have been saved. Maybe he just waited until you walked away, so you wouldn't have to see him leave.

Thanks so much for the responses. I guess it is true, you can't be with someone you love every minute. I just wish I had been there that last moment of his life. I know he would not want me to be so unhappy. It is so hard going through this.

It sure is hard!!!!!!!
All i cld mutter after my Buddy went to sleep was "this sux" took me a while to be able to articulate my loss any other way.
You are in my thoughts & prayers.
elaine

Yes, it IS hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm still crying multiple times a day, missing my Callie girl.

I am so sorry for your loss. I'm going to tell you it was not your fault, but I doubt that's going to help much right now. But hopefully you'll get there. We can always, always look back and wish we had done things differently. But you had no reason to think anything bad was going to happen. You let your baby go outside. It should have been fine. That's all. I'm sorry for all the pain you're in right now.

Magdalene