Angel Lady

SLEEP PEACEFULLY SWEET LADY 2007 – 1.9.2017

Lady was a 10 year old cream coloured Golden Retriever with a gentle personality. We had been determined to do our very best for her as Lady really deserved to enjoy her remaining years with her mate Beau, in a loving home where she would have a daily walk and be able to sit outside snoozing in the Summer breeze or beside the fire on a cold Winter’s day.

Tragically, all our wonderful dreams for Lady were cruelly snatched away. With only her best interests at heart and to prevent any further suffering, whilst cradled in loving arms, Lady was gently and peacefully given sleep on Friday 1st September 2017

Fly with the angels, sweet Lady.

HISTORY

This sweet, very affectionate girl was spayed and received all the necessary injections, passport and documents to travel to the UK. She was thoroughly groomed, needing serious attention to deal with dead hair, matts and even faeces. We were going to make sure Lady would be receiving medication to help with her gait which was not the best although she did seem to improve dramatically after being groomed.

Kathryn noticed her tail wagged constantly and she had a wonderful constant grin Amber, her UK fosterer described Lady as a very sweet senior girl. She said “She’s very quiet but is now choosing to come into the sitting room with us all at night rather than waiting laying outside the door. She can walk very small distances but you can see her tiring after a short walk. At present, her health is our major concern.

Hopefully, over the next few days, we will see continued improvement. The next challenge will be to improve her quality of life by improving her mobility and reducing any pain levels in her legs which will then also make a massive difference to her general quality of life”.

Lady and Beau had come from a kind home and belonged originally to the owner’s mother who had died. Her son was in a wheelchair and, despite doing his best, he found he simply couldn’t cope which was when Kathryn was contacted.

Neglect is very difficult to deal with but, in this case, it was the owner’s disability and financial situation which meant that Lady hadn’t been groomed and, unfortunately, friends, who were supposed to help, hadn’t. Kathryn could hardly contain her tears, giving their distraught owner the biggest hug as he said “I’m sorry that she isn’t clean”. She reassured him “Don’t worry about that we will have her looking a million dollars when she is done. We will look after her, never fear. I will send you pictures and you will see how wonderful she looks”.

The owner was extremely upset as was Lady who didn’t want to be parted from him, so close was the bond between them. In the end, Kathryn lifted her from the house to the car as she whimpered, clearly frightened of what lay ahead.  

The situation was heartbreaking for both dogs and their owner.  Beau danced around his master, as if to reassure him that he knew everything was going to be alright. However, Beau also seemed worried about needing to be with his ‘lady love’ in the car and he didn’t want to be left behind. As soon as Beau got in, a distraught Lady calmed down, realizing that Beau was going on the same journey and they would still be together forever.

Both dogs had been very clearly loved and the agreement was that Lady would be adopted with her mate Beau in the hope they would enjoy a nice leisurely pace of life and look forward to many happy Autumn years together in a wonderful new forever home.

IRR always keeps its promises and this was one promise we intended to keep but, sadly, fate played a very cruel hand and that was simply not meant to be.

Lady and Beau went into foster in the UK with a lovely gentle and kind couple, Amber and Alex, who kept us fully informed and they told us “Lady is an absolute sweetheart. Beau is the most confident of the pair and he will often push forward but I think that, as her health improves, in the next few weeks, we will see much more of Lady’s true temperament coming out”. At this point, the future looked rosy.

LADY’S TIME IN FOSTER

Having just arrived from Ireland, on the Thursday, Lady did not eat much but they were not unduly concerned as they had had fosters in the past who didn’t eat much on their first day.

On Friday and Saturday, she was eating small amounts of the kibble she arrived with but she was also being sick after eating some of her meals. By Sunday, they became quite concerned about her sickness and it was arranged to take her to the vets the next day or even to the emergency vets if she suddenly deteriorated. However, at around 8pm, she did eat a meal and kept it down. Amber and Alex slept downstairs to keep an eye on her but she was not sick again so it was hoped she may be turning a corner.

On Monday, the vet assessed both her vomiting and her stiff legs and gave medication for further prevention of sickness and to keep her regular. It was agreed that she would need pain killers to help her movement but the vet did not want to prescribe just then as they could cause further sickness. Her fosterers had noticed her muscle tone was really poor and the vet said once she was on painkillers, she should be able to move better and would, hopefully, then put on some muscle, general weight and condition.

Because of the issues with Lady’s health, it was hard to determine how laid back she really was and whether not feeling well meant she wasn’t up to being more energetic.  She slept a lot but, they hoped when under some pain medication, she would get a new lease of life.

They really wanted to see her moving better as she was very stiff and uncomfortable walking, Her back legs were shaky and she struggled to get up. Her eyesight was also not 100%, with a hardening of the lenses and her hearing also seemed to be a bit impaired.

The vet said, if she continued to be sick, we would have to consider other options to determine the cause of her illness, the next step being to have her abdomen scanned.

Alex and Amber said no matter what the diagnosis may be they were committed to providing any level of care that Lady needed and for however long that may be.

After two weeks in foster, Amber told us although they had seen a little improvement with the regularity that Lady was sick and she did seem better in herself but she was still being sick almost every day and she had lost ½ kilo in a week which concerned both them and their vet.

She was given further medication and her fosterers continued to monitor her for another week in the hope of some improvement before putting her through the trauma of scans and blood tests to determine the cause.

Lady continued to go downhill and even lost interest in her beloved Beau so, on the advice of the vet, we all felt she must not to be allowed to suffer and she was given sleep on 1.9.2017.  

LADY’S PROMISING ASSESSMENT 

TRAVEL: She is happy and content travelling in a vehicle with Beau

HOUSETRAINING:  Lady has had a couple of wees in the house, one over night, but she has also learnt to go to the back door to ask to go out.

BASIC TRAINING:  It is a little tricky to pinpoint exactly how much training Lady has been given. She does not exhibit any challenging behaviour but, due to her sight and hearing problems, it is difficult to assess whether she does not know commands such as ‘sit’ or ‘come’ or if she is unable to hear them.

Lady will bark if she wants something. As Beau pushes in front a lot, I think she has learnt this is how to get attention. She will also bark if she can’t see where you are but can hear you. This has been really easy to deal with so far as we can just walk over, let her smell our hand and she will follow to where we are. She’ll also bark to be let out, which is actually handy.

LEADWALKING:   She will pull on the lead initially but, as she tires quickly, she does stop pulling quickly. We have not tried with harness or halti.

SEPARATION ANXIETY: Lady shows no signs of separation anxiety

RESOURCE GUARDING:  Once, we have seen her guard a rope toy and refuse to give it back. This was with my husband and I and we have not seen this with any of the dogs. We do not generally leave toys down but she has not been that interested when they have been.

ADULTS: She is very friendly with adults but does not push forward. She holds back but, over time, she is coming for cuddles more.

CHILDREN: Lady has had a brief meeting with children and was happy to be with them.

DOGS: She is quite friendly with other dogs but is probably reserved due to her poor eyesight and hearing. She has had one little grumble at my eldest dog on first introductions, however, he had decided to introduce himself by rubbing his face all over hers so she was just reminding him to watch his manners!

CATS:   She has seen our cat and displayed no interest.