Sweet Sweet Sassy

Well our family just has been hit over and over again lately with bad news.  We just lost our precious puppy, Sassy on Monday.  She was 13 years old and leaves behind her litter-mate/sister, Tinkerbell.

Alan and I got the dogs together after talking about it for a long time. I found them in the newspaper, a breeder that bred only Bostons.  We knew we wanted Boston Terriers since that is what Alan had growing up.  We looked at the pound and all over before settling on the breeder.  Soon enough we were home with two precious puppies.  One was the runt, Tink.  Sassy had more even distribution of black and white, Tink had more black on her.

Both were sweet and did all the typical puppy things, chewed holes in the wall, tore up the carpet, and destroyed anything in their path at our apartment.  They slept in bed with us each night.

As they aged, we had to move them to sleep in another room as the snoring was just too much! If you haven't heard a Boston snore, well it's like a freight train.

Sassy grew to be the sweet, laid back, loving one of the two.  Tink is more the "boss" of the two. Sassy was the lover, she would sit in your lap, lick you, and just generally want to be loved on.  Tink is more independent.  Sassy was just so darn sweet to everyone.  Even the lady at the vet had a soft spot in her heart for Sassy.  This last year, she slowed down a lot.  She just wasn't as playful anymore.  She still moved around well, ate like a champ (that was never her problem!) and acted normal, just slower.

Earlier this year, Sassy had a growth on her paw.  We had it checked out many times.  But in recent months, it started to grow and bother her.  It then got infected and we've made many trips to the vet for meds and treatment.  Finally we decided to attempt surgery when it got infected this last time and had grown way too big and was causing her discomfort. The vet wasn't sure she would survive surgery, but the other option was to put her down or let her suffer as the tumor grew.  Alan was adamant about giving her a chance and attempting surgery.  We knew Sassy had cushing's disease and some heart issues, so we knew it was risky.

This was two weeks ago.  The vet called during surgery and said they had to stop, as they were losing her.  She was too weak to take the anesthesia.  He said the growth was so embedded into her paw, there is no way they could remove it all.  It was biopsied and we were told it was cancer.

So the vet sent her home with pain meds and antibiotics.  We cared for Sassy those two weeks and she was eating, drinking and going outside like normal.The vet checked her paw again, it was healing okay, but we knew she wouldn't have much time left, we just weren't sure how much.

Over the weekend, she started to decline.  Her paw was healing fine, but she started acting a little slugging on Saturday.  By Sunday, she had broken out into huge blisters covering her whole belly and under arms.  The vet lowered her meds in case that was it causing it.  We would later find out it was her body reacting to the cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes.

By early Monday morning she was whimpering in pain.  Alan took her into the vet first thing that morning  to let her go to sleep.  But as they had her in the back on oxygen to make her comfortable, she passed away on her own.  Alan was just starting the paperwork out front when the vet came out to say her heart had stopped before they even did anything at all.

And so our poor sweet Sassy girl- or Sassafrass as I like to call her, was gone.  Her pain was no more and that is what we cared about the most.

I think Tink knew what was going on.  She slept with Sassy that last night as they always did and I know she felt it was bad.  She hasn't even looked around for Sassy at home, because I think she knows she is gone and free now.

And so our two dogs are now one.  Thank you Sassy for all the love, licks and memories.  I hope you are eating doggie treats to your heart's content up there!