Long Live the Queen... Miah

So I have totally avoided posting anything new on my blog for quite some time and for good reason. I have dreaded it in fact. Because writing what happened makes it all more real, as if I'm finalizing something. And I guess I finally am.

As many of our friends and family already know, we had to put our Great Dane, Miah, down. It was an EXTREMELY difficult decision we had to make and one that we hope we NEVER have to make again. It came on us quite suddenly and she declined in health really fast. She started with bouts of diarrhea and irritability which were a semi-normal ritual, but nothing that some good ol' pepto couldn't cure. But after two weeks of it, I started to worry. And thats when her body began to swell and she developed pitting adema. I work at an animal hospital so I took her in and had some xrays and bloodwork done. Her results came back as having IBD - Irritable Bowel Disease. And looking back on her records she had actually had it for at least 2 years, but it was so mild on her records that it was of no concern. We put her on some medication and it didn't seem to be working. She just got worse. We had to make our decision rather quickly to try and treat her, make her comfortable, or to stop her suffering. We prayed and went to the temple and Jason and I both received the exact same answer that neither of us wanted.

For many reasons we know we made the right decision. But it didn't and doesn't make it any easier. I miss her, and occasionally still feel her around. I miss the shock factor of people stopping us to see her, I miss her galloping around our backyard, I miss her following me around the house to each room I went. And honestly I miss her smelling whatever I'm cooking on the stove and me having to shoo her out of the kitchen. Because she could just walk up to the stove and smell whatever was in the pan! We love her and we may one day get another Great Dane, but for now we are only going to stick with one dog, its much less hectic around here for sure.

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