When it rains...

1 week before Apple Festival one of our shih tzus, Lizzie, was diagnosed with an abscessed tooth. So she went on antibiotics and had surgery done to clean the area and sew it shut. She was then put on more antibiotics and we were told she needed to be seen within two weeks. The week of Apple Festival, Brayden came down with chicken pox (yay!) and Lizzie didn't get back to the vet until after he had healed up. At that point she had started to have an odor again, so I just figured the infection was back. Well the infection was back, but it was more than that. The soft palate had worn away in Lizzie's mouth so she had an opening into her nasal passages. The vet said she would put her back on antibiotics, but if the mouth didn't heal then it meant there was more than infection. Last Tuesday I took her back into the vet and she told me that it was worse. The tissue had continued to wear away, it was not only infection but cancer. The vet told me to make her comfortable, spoil her rotten, and say our goodbyes. Last week was so incredibly hard! It seems now (looking back) that Lizzie waited until the vet told us to really get bad. She started refusing to eat, and refusing her antibiotics. Tuesday night Jeff and I were lying in bed watching her sleep and we realized how hard it was for her to breathe. We decided to make an appointment for euthanasia on Saturday if she made it that long. We really wanted her to go on her own. I couldn't sleep at all that night. Wednesday was not a good day for Liz either, she didn't eat all day and I was giving her droppers full of water to keep her hydrated. Thursday night Lizzie perked up, she ate, she drank, she even went to the food bowl and tried dry dog food. Jeff and I began to question our decision for Saturday. Friday she was back to not eating, and acting like she felt awful. We knew our decision was the right one. So on Saturday, we let her go. She was a fantastic dog. Leila took it really well. We told her Friday night that Lizzie was sick and Mommy and Daddy and the doctor could not make her better. It was time for Lizzie to go be with God. We still have Avery. We've been spoiling him rotten just happy we still have one of our companions.