Unfiltered Story #18615

This is a sad story, but the people who helped us made it so much better.

My husband and I had two rescue dogs, a lap/pit mix (4 years old) and a rottweiler (2 years old), and we often foster other rescue dogs while they’re waiting for a home. Our two boys were very closely bonded, the lab mix has epilepsy and our rottie would always make some kind of noise to let me know if he was having a seizure while I wasn’t in the room.

Last winter, I had let them both out in the fenced yard to use the bathroom and run around for a bit while I cleaned the floors. As I was vacuuming, I heard the faint sound of barking coming from the yard. Thinking it’s our older dog having a seizure, I ran outside only to find the epileptic dog barking his head off and our rottie lying on his side, not moving.

I ran over and could instantly tell something was wrong. He was unconscious and his tongue was starting to turn blue. I started administering K-9 CPR, and dialed our vet on speaker phone. They told me there was an emergency vet much closer to my house than their office and to take him there immediately.

I grabbed a blanket, rolled our rottie onto it, and tried to lift him up, but he weighed over 100 lbs and I just couldn’t do it. I was already sobbing by this point, and had called my husband to tell him what happened, but he was too far away to reach me in time to help.

Out of nowhere, our next door neighbor came running through the gate, and he helped me get our rottie into the backseat of my car. He said he’d watch our other dog and send my husband to the right vet if he stopped there first. I thanked him and got down the road as fast as I could.

Unfortunately, they weren’t able to save our rottie. They tried everything, even an adrenaline shot to the heart, but he’d apparently had some un-diagnosed heart condition, and they said it was likely his heart had just stopped suddenly. I was beside myself when my husband arrived, and it was so hard for both of us.

The emergency vet personnel were amazing. They gave us all the time we needed to say goodbye to him, then offered to have him cremated at their facility at no charge, we only had to pay for the receptacle they put his ashes in because those were through a different company. They also could have charged us hundreds of dollars for the treatment they did try to administer, but they told us not to worry about it, they would cover the cost.

A few days later, we received condolence cards from the emergency vet, our regular vet, and even one from the neighbor who helped me get him into the car. While this story definitely didn’t have a happy ending, we were overwhelmed with the kindness and support we were shown by everyone involved, and it made losing our rottie the tiniest bit easier.