K.C.

I'm bummed...bigtime. Katlin and I just returned from the vet's office. Our dog K.C. was very, very sick. The vet said she had a uterian infection. She was urinating all over herself and had a bunch of other nasty stuff. He tried running blood work on her but her blood was so thick that it wouldn't seperate when he tried to run a CBC. K.C. was nearly twelve years old, Kathy's mom and step-dad got her for us shortly after she was born. The doctor said that she could have surgery to try to fix this but it would be very extensive, she might not make it through and there was no guarntee it would be successful. Given all this and that K.C. was 12 yrs old we decided to have the vet put her to sleep. The vet said that Golden Retrievers live to be 10 years old on average so she lived a very long life. Kat and I got to spend about an hour with her at the vets. She was pretty latarghic and just kind of laid on the table. We said goodbye to her and didn't stay with her while they put her down, we simply couldn't do it. We also asked the vet to dispose of her as well.

She was a really good dog, she loved to chase tennis balls. She would pester you to death just to throw her a tennis ball. K.C. also loved to be touched. Recently during the hurricane we let K.C. stay in doors and gave her free run of the house, something I don't believe we ever did before. She would come up to me when I was on the computer and put her nose under my arm so I rub her. Once her nose was under my arm she would jerk her head up which would throw my arm on her back so I would rub her. K.C. had a great disposition, she was wonderful with the boys particularly when they were little. She never bit or snapped at any of us. She was just a sweet girl. My biggest problem I had with her was that she loved to dig. After trying to stop her from digging for about five years, I gave up. I finally realized that was just her nature and that's just what she did. Once I accepted that, K.C. and got along fine, especially over the last five years or so. When we recently evacuated for Hurricane Ivan K.C. went with us. It was her last road trip and she had a blast. She stayed in our hotel room, slept on our bed and got to spend a lot of time with us giving her a bunch of attention. I'm glad she went with us and we got to be with her. But I know now that we all will miss our 'K.C. Girl'.

By the way her name K.C. (even though we called her 'Casey') was because Kathy, Kiel and Katlin's intials are 'K.C.' and not because we are big fans of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Sorry to ramble on about my dog. I had intended to post the second part of my story, maybe tomorrow night. There is alot going on with us right now. Perhaps I'll discuss that as well this weekend. Hope all is well and everyone is doing good. Later.