I didn’t know……how could I?
According to Sarah, I got Nanook in June of 2002. He was about 12 weeks old when I got him and his little sister from a foster home in Athens. I didn’t know when I got them that they were infested with intestinal worms, so bad that they were throwing them up. By the time I got them down to my Dad’s farm little Annabelle was too far gone to be saved. She died within 72 hours of me getting her. Nanook on the other hand, soldiered through and after some very precarious nights, he came out of it seemingly unscathed. The experience taught me a lot about my dog. He was tough, tougher than anyone would have ever realized from a 3 lb dog. He didn’t complain, he’d just look up at me with those sad little eyes as if to say, “I’ll be okay boss.”
The first three years of his life seemed like a constant battle. He had the intestinal worms, he had demodectic mange (so bad at times that he scratched his flesh off), he got heart worms, he faced death so many times during his first three years that I wasn’t sure how long he would live. I always knew he wouldn’t live to be 14, but I had hoped for at least 10.
June 25th I took Nanook, Nikita, and Stitch to the vet for their yearly check-up and shots. As part of the insurance plan I had for Nanook, they did x-rays and showed me that they were clear and everything looked normal. But over the past couple of weeks, I started to realize things weren’t normal. If there was one thing Nanook loved, it was food. He loved it so much that he would brave the territorial Siberian Husky and try to get in her food bowl if I didn’t put his food down first. It was almost annoying.
Over the last couple of weeks, that started to change, Nikita was starting to try and eat his food. It turned out that Nikita’s forays into killing the critters in the yard had lead to a case of tape worms and she was ravenous with hunger because the worms were getting her food before she could absorb it. We got that fixed but Nanook’s appetite still didn’t seem right. On top of that, his belly was starting to look more and more like a pot belly pig. The last straw was this Saturday when we took the dogs and the boy for a walk and Nanook just couldn’t keep up. Not only could he not keep up, he looked like he was depressed that he couldn’t keep up.
The vet told Sarah this morning that the tumor was attached to too many organs and had too many blood supplies to feasibly remove. He would have been willing to try, but there was a high probability that Nanook wouldn’t have survived the surgery since they were already having problems keeping him stable even before they started working on him. Because of the struggles of his life and the dim prospects of a successful surgery, we decided to let him go.
I didn’t know how Nanook’s death would impact me until today. As I sit here writing this post, I’m looking at a picture Sarah took of him, you can see the love in his eyes. He loved me like there was no tomorrow. He was the first dog I got by myself and with the exception of Toby, he been with me the longest of any pet I’ve ever owned. I will never forget our road trips to Wisonsin and North Carolina. I’ll never forget making special trips to McDonalds to get Chicken nuggets because he loved them and I loved him. I’ll never forget the walks on the mountain, or the love he had for any person who was willing to pet him. He is truly the best dog I’ve ever known.
Buddy Boy, I hope that doggy heaven has all the chicken nuggets, Pemmican Beef Jerky and snausages a dog could ever hope for. I hope that you find friends and your sister and that you’re happy forever. We love you!