Hiway Options

[lytlewren]

Thank you so much for having this forum available. I've felt so lost and alone for the past few weeks.

My best friend has osteosarcoma. I had three dogs a year ago and now I have one who is slowly leaving me. The other two I lost earlier were 15 and 16, so it was expected although heartbreaking. Hiway is only 11 and was so very healthy. He missed his "brothers" desperately, quit eating for a while and was terrified of everything. I started bringing him to work, to the store, everywhere I went he was with me. We walked at the river several times a day and played so much fetch I thought my arm would fall off. He finally perked up and started eating and enjoying life again but seemed to have a bum shoulder. The vet said it was age or a muscle strain, so meds and rest. It didn't get better and I got scared, on our third visit back they found the tumor on his shoulder. There is no treatment option, only paliative therapy. We still go to the river every day, sometimes twice, he's a lab and water is his favorite thing except for fetch. Put the two together and he is in heaven. He isn't able to fetch on land due to the risk of pathological fractures, but he can fetch in the water which suits him just fine.

I was told we had about 3-4 months. we're about a month into it already. He still seems healthy, other than a little limp. He only eats when I sit with him, but he's been like that since his brothers passed away. I have wonderful bosses who allow me to bring him to work every day. He waits under my dest patiently for the river walk he knows will come at the end of our day.

I don't know what I'm going to do without him. Losing his brothers was so painful, losing him as well..... I don't know what I'm going to do without him. I will be so lost. I would give anything to be able to make him better, anything.

[lytlewren]

My friends has been gone a year and a day. I think of him almost every day. He has a new little brother now, a chocolate labradoodle named Atticus Finch. Finch and I go almost every day to Hiways favorite beach. We leave treats under a rock here in his memory. I took Hiways ashes up the river where his brothers ashes are. Finch and I visit there also. Kitten (Hiways little cat sister) is good friends with the new family member, but she doesn't sleep by him like she did Hiway. Now she follows me to the bathroom as Hiway used to do, it's like she inherited his job of making sure I'm safe when I wake up at night.

I miss him so very much. He was truly one of the most dignified and caring dogs I've ever met.

Thank you all for being here, for reading my posts and your kind replies. I wish I could reply to more posts, but I find myself in tears and just a wreck if I read too much some days. I've never been sure of what I believe, but do know that our dear friends are still with us in some way, maybe in our hearts or minds, but certainly, they are here somehow.

I love you my boy, I will miss you and think of you always.

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