Said Goodbye to my Lia Last Night

Lia was 10 years, 4 months. She’ been slowing down notably for about 7 months and in some notable discomfort, but in December we were told it was bone spurs. It really escalated this weekend. We took her to the ER vet on Saturday, and they did another x-ray and said there was a tumor pressing on her bladder and that had spread into her spine and basically eaten one of her vertebrae. It was terminal, and there was a risk that the spine would break sooner rather than later. She went from walking over a mile to not wanting to walk up the patio stairs to not wanting to walk even a few paces in 48 hours. I had to carry her to the backyard to use the bathroom on that last day. She was in a lot of pain, but she never lost the sweet disposition of hers.

We had a real good last couple of days with her. After the vet, we took her to the waterfront in our city and gave her ice cream, cheese curds, and fries. She wouldn’t walk at that point so I had to carry her to the grass. That night, she had such a rough night with pain and discomfort, I thought we were going to take her early yesterday morning but she kind of rebounded. I gave her meds, and she kind of settled and got some rest and didn’t really want to move off her bed until 10 or so, then I carried her out into the yard so she could do her business. She actually started walking around the yard a little on her own! So we just hung out in the back yard enjoying the sun together for a couple of hours it felt like. I took her inside after awhile and made her a steak for lunch. Around 2, we went to the walkway by the beach in our city. The meds had worn off and she was unable to walk far again, so we got my wife’s Costco cart to pull her around. She was so alert and happy man. She was interested in the birds and the people and didn’t like the dogs, she was her same old self. We hung out down there people watching for a couple of hours. Around 5, we drove down to this little burger joint and got her a cheeseburger and a small milkshake and some fries. She wouldn’t sit down, but she was so happy and alert looking up at me. My wife and I were talking about yesterday maybe not being the day, it had been such a good day. After she ate, she even walked about 30 feet on her own to go to the bathroom. We thought that was promising. But as soon as we put her in the car, we realized even that 30 feet had overdone it and she started whining from pain, even though she had just taken the pain meds 2 hours before. We both cried and knew it was time. We stopped by the house to pick up our other dog’s picture, collar, and ashes so we could have our whole family there. We said goodbye at 8:25 last night. I held her head in my hands as she went to sleep, and the last thing Lia saw was my wife looking at her lovingly. I miss her so much man. She was such a good dog. The house feels so empty. I wanted to share some pics from her last day. It was such a good day. She maybe could have stayed with us longer, but we didn’t want her to suffer or end her life on a really really bad day.

RIP my sweet pup. Lia (2/1/2015-6/2/2025)