Katy was born July 16, 1995. We picked her up from the breeder in Pennsylvania in early September of that same year. We brought her home and put her in a crate behind a baby gate in our laundry room. We loved that pup so dearly; she was such a precious little thing.
We decided that one puppy was enough, so we had Katy spayed in February of 1996. (That didn't stop her from having a crush on the neighbor's Cockerpoo, Bailey, later on in her adult years!).
Although we never really obedience trained Katy, we were very lucky that she was a naturally well-behaved dog. She never chewed furniture or even clothing (unless it was given to her in a game), and she never had accidents in the house unless she had been sick. We never knew a dog so calm and laid back as Katy was.
When Katy was about 1, she began having problems with her skin. We would discover red, raw patches on her skin (usually on her sides or her tummy), then find clumps of her hair all over the house, mixed with scaly, oatmeal flakes. Nobody could totally put a finger on what it was. Our vet tested numerous times for thyroid problems, and even went as far as putting her on medication for it, but it didn't help, and all her thyroid tests came back negative. We went to another vet who did more tests and even put Katy through a skin biopsy, to find nothing wrong. We then looked in Katy's paperwork to find the vet the breeder had taken her dogs to. We made the ride up to Pennsylvania and saw that vet. He did even more tests and finally concluded that she had an estrogen deficiency from being spayed and put her on estrogen pills. They worked for awhile, then quit. We stopped giving them to her because she never liked taking pills; it was always a fight, although she was good about it. We basically gave up with vets and accepted the fact that there was something wrong with our dog that nobody would ever figure out. When we took Katy for her routine shots this year (2002) when she was about 7, the vet who administered the vaccinations brought up the skin ailment again, this time mentioning Cushing's Disease. What was that? We had never heard of that before. He explained that it is a genetic illness characterized by scaly patches on the skin, along with other symptoms that Katy had experienced. The testing for it was so expensive though. We decided not to persue it.
We made the mistake of loving Katy so much that we began spoiling her with table food when she was just a puppy. Soon enough, that was all she would eat. She would very rarely eat her dog food, even though we put it down for her every night. She seemed to take to the foods well without getting sick so we thought it was okay; as first time dog owners we didn't know the risks. By the time Katy was around 6, she weighed nearly 60lbs. Since she was a bigger-boned Sheltie to begin with, the vet said he would be happy if she weighed around 35lbs. We tried to put her on a diet...but not hard enough. We would change her eating for a few days, then go back to the way it always was. We didn't appreciate the seriousness of the situation, and no one had realized then how much we were really hurting her. We always said she would have a short life but a good one. Little did we know, we were right all along.
When we went on vacation in August of this year (2002), we put Katy in the kennel where she had stayed many times before when we were away. They had changed owners a few years back and a veterinary technician had taken over. She was wonderful with the dogs and absolutely adored Katy. We had a wonderful cruise but couldn't wait to get back and see our little girl. We got home on a Sunday and went to get Katy the next day. Jenn met us at the car when we pulled up, unusual for her. She explained that she had had to take Katy to the vet while we were away because she wasn't eating, was throwing up, had blood in her stool and a temp of 103. They had taken blood tests and we found out Katy was in kidney failure. I covered my mouth in shock and began crying. "That's fatal!" I cried. We all walked in to see Katy. She was in the food room cuddled up in the corner with her ears and head down. She looked so different...so sick...so tired. I knelt on the floor beside her and sobbed. I couldn't believe this was happening. She was only 7 years old. What had we done wrong? The vet was on the phone so we got the whole detailed story on her condition. He recommended we take Katy right over there so he could hospitalize her and put her on dialysis to clean out her system. We did just that, crying the whole way there. When we got there, the vet was in surgery so we had to wait a little while until he came out. He finally took us in a back room and shut the door. He explained to us about Katy's condition and the severity of it. The kidney failure was in it's end stage and the chance of her surviving, even with treatment, was very very slim. We still wanted to keep up hope as hard as it was. They kept her in the hospital until Wednesday, hoping things would improve. We called for an update on Tuesday and the nurse said she had stopped vomiting, which was a good sign. We breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that, although she was not out of the woods yet, she was improving against the odds. On Wednesday, we were driving right past the veterinary hospital so we decided to drop in and see Katy. The moment we walked through the doors I got a knotted feeling in my chest that something wasn't right. I began to get very anxious. I asked to see her and the nurse led us to the kennels in the back. She opened the gate and there lay Katy, almost lifeless. The sparkle had gone from her eyes and her nose was bone dry. We dropped to our knees beside her and, holding her, cried. We probably gave her a bath by the time we were done! Every so often we went in to see if the vet was available to speak to us. I stayed outside with Katy. I wasn't believing what was happening. Why her? Why this? Why now? I was scared. I didn't want to lose her. All I could do was cry and pace and hug her. I got the report from the doctor. The dialysis had done nothing. Katy was getting worse. Her creatinine level had shot up along with some other chemicals they had been testing for. The vet recommended we put her down as soon as possible or her body would fail in a matter of days and she would suffer as she died. We made the difficult decision to put her to sleep that day. Since she was so weak, they were originally going to put her to sleep outside in the kennel. I told them we wanted it done in the exam room, so the vet, assisted by the nurse, carried her inside. They put her on the same metal table she had been on for every shot and examination. I was so hysterical at that point I thought I would pass out. I had lost feeling in my hands and my legs felt like they weighed 80lbs. each. I was so tired. We held Katy as they gave her the shot that ended her life. We were all hysterical by the time she was officially pronounced dead. It was so hard finally walking out of the room, leaving her laying there on that table. I couldn't get that picture out of my head for days. I was so depressed. It took awhile to register; I kept thinking she was still at the kennel. I still remember the way she died, sprawled out on her side like she always slept, with her little tongue sticking out of her mouth. She looked so precious, like she was sleeping. Only this time, she would never wake up. I know she's in a better place but it doesn't ease the pain. I know time will heal but I will always deeply miss her.