Mixer farewell

I have been meaning to post for a long time now but since loosing him I haven't been able to talk about it without getting upset. We adopted Mixer from the Mae Bachur Animal shelter in the Yukon in June of 2003. Mixer was our saviour after we suddenly lost Keno in May.

Mixer loved snow and was the only one that would be thrilled when the first snow fall of the season arrived. He would run outside with shinning eyes and grab mouthfuls of the stuff. For the past few years Mixer has been slowing down and in February when he was in for his yearly checkup Dr. Anne thought he was showing signs of cushings disease. We had him tested and sure enough he was a clinical case. We put him on a drug called Trilostane which apparently had been showing remarkable results. For the first few days of being on the drug he seemed far happier and seemed to have more energy then started to go back to normal and then gradually slowed down to not even wanting to go for a walk every day. Something he loved to do. We made an appointment to have him retested and when we got to the office I could tell the news wasn't good just by the look on the doctors face. He had lost over twenty pounds in less then a month. They adjusted the medicine and we asked for x-rays of his stomach area as he was still really extended. The x-rays showed a full stomach and as he hadn't been eating much it meant that he wasn't digesting his food properly. He also had very dark stool which meant that he was bleeding somewhere. Then he developed a huge abscess in his leg which burst, we put him on really strong antibiotics and I was praying that he would magically recover and get some energy back once the pills kicked in. He stopped eating and even once the medicine was done was very lethargic and didn't show interest in anything anymore. He would lay there looking so sad and would groan constantly. I came home from work one night and he didn't even look up when I pulled in and I had to lift him up to get him to come into the house for the night. The next morning we took him in and let him go to the bridge. It was such a hard decision but I am sure we did the right thing for him.

Mojo and Shiloh looked for him for days and our house was very sad for a long time.

The grand kids really miss him as well and Aidan keeps saying " I sure miss Mixer"... We all do little buddy and hope that he is slurping snow where ever he is.

Anyway that is my catch up post and I will try to update more often.