Luck Be A Lady

Birdie is my beautiful Sheltie. She is a retired show dog with many championships to her name. She had just turned seven the day we picked her up from the breeder. It's been only a little over 10 months since we got her but she immediately became part of our family. If truth be told, we were actually concerned about how she would get along with our two Maltese dogs. Well, actually one Maltese in particular. :-) Turns out, everything was fine between the three dogs. Birdie was my Sentry. She always guarded the house like a good dog would. It seems that some fairytales aren't meant to last. Our beautiful girl is dying. She was diagnosed two weeks ago with failing kidneys. Our wonderful vet gave us the bad news – we had days left, not years. It looks like we'll be saying goodbye to her tomorrow or by Friday at the latest. We can't bear to see her suffer any longer. It's the right thing to do. As much as it hurts us to let her go we can't let her suffer just...

Warning..... this one may go off on some tangents. My mind is trying to grasp at a couple of life lessons and it keeps jumping around like a jack rabbit in heat! (I don't really know what a jack rabbit in heat acts like....LOL) It's the last day of 'Bark the Musical' at the Jewel Box Theatre. Five weeks (which seems long and in the great scheme of things really isn't) later, I'm happy and sad. Happy that I got to do a show that is about the pure joy of being a dog and owning a dog, sad that it's coming to an end but happy that it is coming to an end so I can move on to my next show. Maria Callas awaits and I need to wrap my head around 50 pages of monologues in less than 5 weeks. It will be a challenge! Birdie (our Sheltie) is not getting better and her picky-ness with food is driving me insane. She needs to eat carbs and it goes against her dog nature to avoid meat. She's lost about 5 lbs and I'm so afraid she's losing even more. Poor girl.....

I am heartbroken... I am crying quietly, yet uncontrollably. My lovely dog, Birdie was diagnosed with kidney failure today and there is nothing we can do for her. We have had her less than a year. She had just retired from being a show dog and had given birth one time to a beautiful little boy named Bogey.  We were to take her and give her a forever home with no pressures other than to live the life of retirement and bliss. My tears won't stop. I feel ripped off. She's almost 8 years old and should be able to have another 4-6 years. But now, we're forced into deciding when she'll take her last breath unless her poor shriveled kidneys decide to fail on her first. She looks a little tired... a little less sparkle than she used to have a few months ago. But she still looks and acts like a healthy dog. She hides her constant pain and discomfort like the best actress in the world. She nudges me for love, she barks at the vacuum and the hair dryer, and she wants to p...