Watson Euthanized Unexpectedly Yesterday

 

A short time after his lunch yesterday I could hear him cry out in pain from my computer chair. I went running through the house finding him outside in this corner. No, that photo wasn't taken yesterday. I knew it was serious and starting calling vets. The first three would not take him even in an emergency, the forth was the emergency vet I had been to with other dogs but they did not open until 6pm and I was calling them a little after 1pm. The fifth vet, their vet was out for the afternoon.

Finally the 6th vet said "can you get him here by 1:45pm" ... that was 15 minutes away but it was "just right around the corner", opened only a couple of month ago in a remodeled brick home. I was there in 10 minutes after driving like a mad man way over the speed limit. 

For the first time in years he tried getting in the back of the FJ by lifting his front paw up on the bumper. I bent over and lifted him up into the back.

Long story short ... x-rays showed his stomach and intestines were full with gas and ... his intestines had twisted. She said it wouldn't be long before the aorta would be shut off and the wait would be even more painful for him than the pain he was in. We both agreed there was no other option but euthanizing him.

I laid on the floor talking to him until his last breath. Something I have done way too many times over the years of owning hounds and dogs. 

I told a friend last month Watson had aged a lot this past year. Those times of running and playing were gone. He played and ran with Ava more than the other dogs. She looked for him everywhere, inside and outside when I got home yesterday.

Before the vet trip, three different times he stood next to me, leaned into my leg and looked up with his tail barely wagging. He knew he wasn't coming back, even before I did.

It never gets easy losing a hound.

Sad times in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.