Moving Forward After Tragedy
Trip Start
May 14, 2010
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Trip End
May 21, 2010
North Clairemont, California
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Moving Forward After Tragedy
Thursday, May 13, 2010
- San, Diego, California - 32°43'59.21"N, 117°11'18.89"W
On the night of April 30th we lost a dear member of our family. Our beloved dog Zeus suddenly died. Zeus was a Black Lab / Great Dane (with a little Chow) mix. While at 85 lbs his sister, K'Ehleyr, was sleek and looked like a large lab, Zeus at 100 lbs was more like a small Great Dane. He had a full body and beautiful long black fur. As the years went by Zeus began to have some problems with his hips and by 2010 was on some of the same chronic-pain meds that Lee takes.
We got Zeus and his sister, K'Ehleyr, around Easter 1999 when they were two months old. It was agreed that the boy dog would be Lee’s and the girl dog would be Liz's. They both became full family members but Zeus was big and cuddly and loving and became everyone's favorite. He took to sleeping on Liz's bed whether she was in it or not and Liz loved to spoon with him.
Liz was working the graveyard shift the night of Friday, April 30, 2010 and Lee, having just had his implanted pain-med pump reprogrammed was not feeling well. In the late evening Zeus vomited a couple of times but Lee didn't think much about it. Within a couple of hours Zeus began panting more than usual and Lee had a thought that he too was not feeling well. After midnight Zeus was dry heaving and his breathing was getting more and more labored and Lee became alarmed. Lee looked through our dog-care books but was more concerned about the panting than the vomiting and didn't find anything that seemed to explain what was going on. When he concluded that there might be something seriously wrong Lee looked up and called the emergency Veterinary clinic and on their advice called Zeus' veterinarian's answering service and quickly got a call from the vet. She asked him to take Zeus to the emergency clinic immediately.
Within minutes of calling the veterinary clinic to tell them Lee was bringing him in Zeus collapsed. As Lee struggled to get him on his feet to go to the van, and with his sister by his side, Zeus died in his arms. Lee was unable to lift Zeus and finally had to drag him up the ramp he uses to load his power wheelchair into the van. At the emergency clinic the doctor explained that large-chested dogs sometimes have their stomachs twist, a condition known as Bloat and that for dogs of this type Bloat is the second largest cause of death. She gently explained what had probably happened and let Lee know that once the stomach had twisted there was very little that could have been done to save Zeus. Zeus was 11 years and 3 months old when he died.
The two hardest phone calls Lee has ever had to make was to call Liz to tell her that he was going to take Zeus to the emergency clinic and then some minutes later to tell her that he had died. At times during the following two weeks it was hard to imagine taking our cruise, and leaving K’Ehleyr at home, but there was no way we were going to miss this possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Everyone insisted and the kids were adamant. It was with heavy hearts that we packed our bags for Alaska.
