sedeh
Well-Known Member
Our wonderful Golden Retriever Duke died this morning.
He was 12 1/2 and was just the kindest dog you've ever met. I bought him for my husband as his wedding gift. My husband had had a golden retriever as a child but they had to give him away and he always wanted another one. Duke was definately Doug's dog...they had a special bond....though all the dogs follow me around the house wherever I go, they're there! I guess I'm just "MOM". Duke was always "mom" to any new puppies or kittens that came into our home! We had 3 kittens that we had taken from a feral cat and were bottle feeding. Duke would always clean them up and they'd crawl all over him. One of the kittens became "Duke's cat". Ricky loved Duke and would rub on him and just lay by him whenever he could. They were almost the same color so it was cute to watch. I had noticed that Duke was getting a little thinner the past month or so and didn't want to get up and around as much...but he's 12 and I put it down to "old age". Then the weekend before last he just started panting and when I petted him I felt some enlarged lymph nodes under his chin. We took him to the vet...I was hoping it was an infection causing the swollen lymph but I feared the worse. The worst was confirmed, he had an aggressive malignant lymphoma. We opted not to go for chemo....I just couldn't see putting him through that at his age, and went for "comfort measures". I still was shocked at how fast he went downhill. Yesterday he stopped eating and his eyes were dull. We were talking about putting him down. Last night he had a rough night and I was up with him most of the night. He became unresponsive this morning and then just stopped breathing. Both my husband and I were with him at the end, telling him how much we loved him and that it was okay for him to go. We will miss him so much.
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