Last night as I was walking Romeo, I saw someone throw something out of the car and speed off. My heart immediately told me it was a dog, and indeed it was. Romeo went ballistic and the dog did not even try to move so I knew something was up. I took Romeo home as fast as could and went back, I came across the dog and "my roamer" (different story) the one that had been just discarded off was having problems walking and breathing, so I called them to me and made myself as small as I possibly could facing them away, held out a big piece of beef liver on my hand, the older one eventually made it all the way "my roamer" stood a couple of feet back. I slowly turned around gave him the food, let him smelled me and gently touched his side and worked my way up to his collar, he still had tags, but only old rabies tags, no name. I was not surprised, so now what to do? I tried to get the older dog to walk, but he would not budge (panting really fast and I could hear something from his chest) so I decided to pick him up (cattle dog mix) and carried him home, had to stop a couple of times he was heavy, "my roamer" followed cautiously. When I made it home, I put him in my patio, I had already called my dad to tell him to put fresh water and food out for the dogs. The older one ate 4 large cans of Innova and the roamer ate 6 /8oz rabbit burgers, at first I only gave him 3 but seeing he was so hungry...after they ate and drank water we all passed out and slept all night. ( My dad kept Romeo in my room)
Well, this morning I got up really early to walk Romeo, but he saw the dogs and went crazy again, stupid me I came up from behind and tried to grab him, he turned and pounced, got me by the corner of my eye, broke some skin, it freaked him out because the moment I said ouch he looked horrified, forgot about the dogs and started to lick my face, had to clean up the wound and all of that.
After I walked Romeo, I walked the other dog, by this time I had already called my vet and she was on her way over, after their walk (with "my roamer" always a couple of feet behind) we went back to the apt and they ate just as much as last night. The vet came over did tests on the older dog, because the other will not let you come close, and as I was afraid: hw +, his ears in pretty bad shape, and also she said he must have had a problem with his hips and legs as he was very wobbly, and he cried in pain when she examined him, he had a pretty bad heart murmur and his lungs did not sound great either, and he had all kinds of worms. She said I could take him to animal control since he had tags, or the SPCA, but she said because of his age and condition more than likely they will put him down. In the meantime, my father had been calling different rescue organizations and the answer was "no, we are full"; I decided not to take him to the SPCA, but let my vet do it.
Now, I feel so guilty and have not been able to stop crying. That dog trusted me, and what did I do? I did talked to him before, I apologized to him, because his humans had not been as loyal to him as I am sure he was to them. I also apologized because I was not going to be able to keep him, I told him he was very sick, and the place where he was going, was a beautiful place and I described it, the whole time this dog did not take his eyes off of me, neither did the other one, his breathing became elaborated you could tell it was hard for him to breath, it was hard for him to walk too, he would take a couple of steps and he would fall to the ground, after I said my good bye and apologized a million times, I laid down next to him, held him as tight and softly as I could and let the vet first sedate and then give him the last injection, he somehow rotated his head, looked at me, licked my hand and faded away, as I laid there stroking the dog as he died, the roamer had quietly made his way inside had laid down next to me, and had rested his head on the curve of my waist and just watched. I am having him cremated and I am going to bury him in my mom's garden by some pretty sunflowers that she has.
I don't know now if I made the right thing, my vet said was the most humane thing to do.
My roamer is a sharpei mix that has been in the area since last October and no one can catch this dog, I mean no one, not animal control, no one. I gave been giving him food and water, or at least I leave it where I know he is going to be, he usually will not eat until I have walked away, he has never let me come close enough to him to touch him, but last night was different and today too. Usually once he eats, he leaves and sometimes I will see him in the evenings or it will be days before I see him again. Today though he has hung around, not in my patio, but across from my apartment, he is laying on the grass under a tree asleep. I have been working so hard to gain this dog's trust and now I don't know what will happen. Now he probably thinks the same thing will happen to him if he does.
I am mortified, it has been a very emotionally draining day. I am glad my dad took Romeo to day care, because I am in need of some me time right now.
I am sorry for the very long post, grammatical errors, etc, but I needed to share with people who understand. God, I just hope I did the right thing by this dog and may he run free at the Rainbow Bridge. [
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