Goodbye SamDog

Mon. Feb 15th - We gave Sam 2000 mL of fluids. After getting Sam into our bedroom last night around 11:30pm, we laid him on several layers of towels. We drifted in & out of sleep, but Sam kept sitting up and then began to pant. I heard him panting & kept trying to wake up. Around 1:30am we both got up to check on him. His temp was 105.7° and he seemed to be in pain. We started sub-Q fluids and cold compresses. Around 3am his temp was down to 105.0°. We decided to sleep on the floor beside him. I stayed awake with him until 4:30am and kept the cold compresses on his face & ears. He seemed to feel better & was able to sleep. At 6am we checked his temp again, it was still 105.0° so we gave him another round of sub-Q fluids. He had no interest in food so we worried about giving him Tramadol on an empty stomach. He had been in so much pain Sunday night, the fever had returned & we felt hopeless. We decided to call Dr. Stoll when ECVR opened & schedule his last appointment. When daylight came we called ECVR & left a message for Dr. Stoll. The more we discussed the logistics of getting Sam in the car and having to say goodbye to him there, the more we thought of finding someone to come to our house. Dr. Stoll called us and said she'd come to us. This was amazing! She normally does not do home visits, but Sam had made such an impression on her that she said she had to come. We were so moved by this generosity that we could only cry in response.
At 9:30am Dr. Stoll & Dawn came to our house. Sam was a sweet dog while they setup his IV. We were able to hold him & talk to him the entire time. They pushed the drugs and our sweet puppy was gone. We are so grateful that we could hold him & talk to him through it all.
After Dr. Stoll & Dawn left we took Sam to our deck, cleaned him, and spent more quality time saying our goodbyes. At 1pm we took Sam to Southeastern Pet Cremation. Barbara Currie was there to meet us and was very caring & supportive. It was very important to us that we not leave Sam's side for a second and she understood. We moved Sam from the Jetta to a gurney where she made a clay impression of his left front paw. We said our final goodbyes and helped her move him into the cremation unit. We wanted to be with Sam all the way. We gave him one last pet and the door closed. She explained it would take about 2 hours & that we could wait in their waiting room but we chose to sit in our car. We looked at photos of him and remembered the good times. We could see the smoke rising from the chimney towards birds riding the winds overhead. Sam always loved to bark at birds, we thought, in an effort to ask how they were able to fly. We took peace in seeing his smoke rise up to meet these birds. Ron Currie gave us Sam's ashes and we brought our pup home.
The worst day of our lives was eased by the generosity of Dr. Stoll, Dawn & the Curries. We will no doubt cry for years to come over the loss of Sam but we have so many wonderful memories we can't help but smile through the tears.
We love you Sam and will never ever forget you!