# 1 year ago



## momtoduke (Sep 29, 2008)

Hi everyone, 
I have been a member of this site for a little while now and still have not read one story of the lost loved ones here. Not that I dont want to or not that i dont have a heart, Because believe me my thoughts/prayers/feelings are with you all in so many ways! 

One reason i wanted to post here tonight is that yesterday was one year since we lost our beloved Dusty he wasnt a german shepherd, he was an all american but he was my all american! We lost him to cancer so quickly. He was diagnosed with it on Nov. 5 and we had to put him to sleep on dec. 18th. 

That was one of the hardest things i have ever had to do in my life. I miss him so much after one year! He was 12 year old and beautiful. He was a mix of beagle and husky. I hope i can post about him on here with out him being a gsd. If not im sorry. It is so hard to even type this on here.

Someday I will get brave enough to go and read everyone elses post about there beloved friends, but right now just isnt the time for me. I would like to say though for any one that reads this and has had a beloved fur friend pass that im so so so sorry for your loss and i know exactly what your going through.

Its so unreal that it has been a year since dusty has been gone. I said after he left us i didnt want any other animals at all ever! 4 months later we got the big lug that we have now hoping that that would help some of the pain but it doesnt by far! Even though dusty was not a gsd and duke is i see dusty in duke everyday in alot of the things he does. again im so sorry for the loss that you all have had to go through, it hurts and it hurts bad!

I do believe that dusty sent duke to us though. We had a hard time figuring out what kind we wanted and i told my dh to lets let dusty make that descion for us and when the time was right to get another one he would send us one, and he did! and im so glad that he did send one that can never take his place but loves us just as much as he did and we love him just as much as we did our dusty! 

DUSTY YOU ARE GONE BUT NEVER WILL BE FORGOT! WE LOVE YOU DUSTY DOG!







YOU ARE OUR ANIMAL ANGEL


----------



## Karin (Jan 4, 2008)

I'm so sorry for your loss. It sounds like Dusty was a wonderful dog. It's such a hard thing to go through. We lost our first dog to cancer at the age of 11 and didn't get another dog for many, many years! And we STILL miss her, even after such a long time!

Rest in peace, Dusty.


----------



## k9sarneko (Jan 31, 2007)

I am so very sorry for your loss. Dusty sounds like he was a lovely boy. Its so very hard when you loose a "heart dog", one who matches your very soul and touches such a deep place in your heart that you never really get over their loss. 
We feel the same way about our boy Brutus. We had to send him to the bridge 3 years ago due to brain cancer. I still touch his picture ever night as I go up to bed and there will always be a part of my heart that will be his alone. 
Hugs and many prayers to you and your family.

Run free sweet Dusty, find Brutus, he will show you the ropes till we all meet again.


----------



## Kayos and Havoc (Oct 17, 2002)

What a wonderful tribute to Dusty! So sorry you lost him suddenly to a terrible disease. 

One dog never replaces another but Duke did come to you for a reason and because of loving Dusty you were able to open your hearts to Duke.


----------



## rockhead (Jul 8, 2007)

It's been a week short of three months since I lost my boy to cancer - Eich had Hemangiosarcoma and lasted less than a month after being diagnosed. I was touched by your story and encouraged that you found Duke with help from Dusty. I, too, am hoping that Eich will (someday) send back the piece of me he took with him. 

Thanks for posting.


----------



## momtoduke (Sep 29, 2008)

Even though I posted this post it is very hard for me to come back and read it tonight. although i did and im sitting here balling like a baby! Thank you all for your wonderful words they mean alot! 

Dusty was a wonderful companion. He not only represents companion ship but he had so much more that he represented! He was born to me out of my dog and he was the first thing that I ever gave to my husband but at the time my husband was my boyfriend. We didnt live together and we hadnt been dating for long at all when he was born and he was kinda like a promise to our love! 

When he was 2 years old he and my dh was riding the 4 wheeler and dusty always rode it with him and he would sit in front of my husband on the seat and he would hold him like a child. Well one day his foot slipped and it went into the chain and we had to take him to the vet (not our vet now) some and i dont say this word i dont like this word but stupid idiot of a vet and he sedated him so many times that it later caused epilepsy in dusty.

Other than that he had a perfect clean bill of health. Well on the day we found out he had cancer my dh and i were out in the yard and we were working on something and i remember my dh was in a foul mood and i asked what his problem was? and he said dusty out there and i said what he said do you not hear him and i said no whats he doing? and he said listen. 

So i started to listen and i could here him hacking and coughing and it was awful. Knowing that he was 12 years that it could be something serious i thought maybe congestive heart failure, so i went straight in and called the vet that we used with dusty not the same vet we have now either. and he said it could be one of 2 things congestive heart failure or cancer and my heart just sank and i started crying and he said stacey bring him on in tonight and its like 9pm so i said ok. we were 30 mins away from the vet at the time.

We finally got there and he looked him over and tried to open his mouth and of course dusty the stubborn butt that he was had them jaws locked tight! so he asked if i could bring him back the next day so he could get the xrays and make him open his mouth when he had help and of course i said yes. then he said well do you think he will open if you try? and i said he might, i put my hands on his mouth to open it and he opened right up with no problems at all! 

When he opened i immediatly almost had a nerves break down right there, i seen the tumor in the roof of his mouth, and it was golf ball size. the vet said thats what i thought and i said what and he said stacey he has cancer. and of course i started asking questions immediatly. i asked him how long he thought we had and he said by the way it happend so quick and the size of it not long at all. he said that what happens with that kind of cancer is, it is just like a humans roof of the mouth it starts on the back of the soft pallet and eats through it, then it eats through the second pallet which is called the hard pallet. if you put your tongue to the back of the roof of your mouth you can feel your soft pallet.

Anyway he said then it will eventually eat through the nasal cavity and then finally go to his brain. and he said we would probably have less than a month because it was very aggressive. there was alot more to the story but to get to the end, we let him go that way for over a month. he was diagnosed on nov. 5 and we had to put him down on dec. 18 well of course it was longer than a month im sure we just didnt know it.

we were being so selfish to him. we should have put him to sleep long before he went but we was hoping he would go on his own and it didnt happen he wanted to go but i strongly believe he didnt want to leave us because he knew how sad we were and he didnt want us to hurt. i think thats why he was holding on! i will believe that till the day i see him again!

we wasnt thinking about him being in pain we were thinking about us and how much we would miss him and that was so selfish of us! we didnt want to loose him so we let him go like that for a month. at the end he had it so bad, he bled through his nose all the time and his right eyes swelled so much that it sunk in the back of his head and all you could see was a whole. I feel so bad now to think about that, that we should have done something alot quicker than we did.

but the vet kept telling us as long as he would eat and drink we would keep him alive and he ate and drank both. so im sorry its a long story i just wanted to share it with everyone. i wanted to show everyone that if you think its time please do it dont let them suffer anymore than they have to. because like us we were being selfish for our own feelings even though we loved him so much and didnt want to loose him.

the morning that we decided he got up and was so deloushanial (didnt spell that right) that he didnt even know where he was. so please who ever reads this and feels its time for them and not you take the advice do it when its time for them not you! 

My 5 year old son asks about him all the time, i told him just a couple of weeks ago that he was in doggy heaven and that he was running and playing in the crystal clear creek and playing on the most beautiful green grass and running over the rainbow bridge and jumping and chasing butterflies! and waiting for us to be with him!

I to believe with all of my heart that dusty sent duke to us because he knows how much we miss him but he knows that he will never be replaced even though we love duke so much and would actually hurt someone over my animals! He is gone but never in a million years forgotten! I have created a place for him in my mind that is so beautiful and full of life and i know he is having a wonderful time of being pain free! 

Now i have my precious copper that is a pomarainian and he is 13 years old. he was my first baby and only 6 months older than dusty, and right now i am showing copper more love than i think i have all of his life and thats alot! since i have only showed him love from the beggining, but i want him to know how much he is loved! 

duke as most of you know was hit by a car about a month ago, he is making a full recovery and has made our bond more close than ever! He is our boy and he has completed us for i know that some where some how a part of dusty lives in him! i have one last thing to say to dusty before i leave this post!

GET THE MOLE DUSTY, GET THE MOLE! 

We love you and we thank you for making our family what it is today! Goodnight Boy!


----------

