KayCee was 8 years and 9 months old when cancer claimed her Sunday May 25th. She died in my arms while we were wating for my vet tocome and send her to the Bridge. She had had been fine on Thursday, running, playing, perfectly normla acting. Riday monring she wouldn't eat, threw up and had a tgemp of 105, My Vet found a large mass in her lower abdomen and did surgery. He had seen cancer in many sections of the intinstines, but never here. It apparently had started on her appendix and completely surround the ara where larg and small intestines meet. A normla bowl/tumor removal is 30 to 45 minutes. this took voer 1 1/2 hours, very complecated. She found to live, but 48 hours later I knew Ihad to let her go., Pain killer while waiing on the vet put her into a comfortable sleep, but she knew I was thee holding and talking to her. he died in my arms shortly before he got there. This is her life story.
When Scooter died in Aug. 1999 we were left with only his younger full brother, Buck and we decided to get another male golden puppy. and Hunter was it. However on that October day we went to pick him up this little female crawled up in Jerry's lap and licked his face and our hearts were gone. There were only 2 female puppies left and only one had been "spoken" for, but not picked out. We couldn't afford to buy two, but were just compelled to do so. So we came home with Hunter and KayCee.
They slept in a mesh playpen beside the bed until Dec. They never went potty in the playpen, but would wake me about 6:00, I would take them out and they would rush to back door. But as they got a little older, I would put them in bed and play with them about 5 minutes and then they would go. Once they left the playpen, they slept in in the bed with me/us.
When I was teaching the leash just after we go them, Hunter would be ahead of me at the end of his leash, but not pulling. He wanted to see the world. But my chicken little KayCee would stick so close that I would trip over her. When Hunter got a sticker bur, he would sit and pull it out. Not KayCee. She would sit and hold her foot up for ME to take it out.
She would bully Hunter and he let her. She would chew on his ears, his tail, his face, take his toys. He didn't care. They would share pans and that never changed If Hunter had a toy and KayCee wanted it, he let her have it.
When KayCee was 16 months old she had to have surgery for luxating patella on her right knee, and then 14 months the same surgery on her left knee, only this time the ACL had to be repaired. Those were long weeks of inactivity, but she was a trooper. I slept on the floor with her so she wouldn't be alone. It was after she had recouped from her 2ed surgery that she had the severe reaction to her annual vax and we almost lot her. In 45 minutes she was covered with huge hives, her eyes were swollen almost shut and her temp was 106.9. We rushed her to the hospital and Rickey met us there. We had been the last ones in that day, so this was emergency visit. A couple of injections and she was fine. But had we gone to the Good Friday service as planned, she could have been dead when we got home. Rickey was pretty sure it was the lepto but decided she should never have any other vax except law required rabies. Our city says every year but he only gave hers every 3 years and said if I had a problem sent them to him.
KayCee had allergies, especially bad in spring and fall, that caused ear infections and hot spots. WE knew she was allergic to live oak and probably pine pollen, bermuda grass, mold, fleas. In her lat few years she had not had the hot spots she had when younger, but the ear infections continued. She had been on 3 different drops this year already and they helped, but would not clear it up. Steroids would hold it at bay for a while, but we avoided them as much as possible. About 7-8 months after Hunter died I was feeding the girls and Buck one morning and when she went to get up to eat, she dumped forward and to the left and lay there jerking her head to the left, her mouth working. I went into a panic thinking she was having seizure. I threw an old floppy muumuu dress on over my night shirt to rush her to the vet. I had longhair then and put it in a top knot at night. Part of it was hanging out. I think they were ore worried about me than her when I got her to the vet. There I was with that old sleeveless thing over my night shirt, hair going every which way, tears streaming and I do think I didn't put on shoes. Well, it was not a seizure, but a vertigo episode from a deep ear infection. She never had another one.
She had the strangest teeth. Her canine teeth were extremely thin, more like tooth picks than teeth. And the bottom front tooth on each side of the two center ones turned completely sideways a couple of yeas ago. They went from front to back--like molar--instead of side to side. And she collected tarter at an unreal pace. When she had her first knee surgery at 16 months, they claned her teeth. Hunter died at 4 years 2 months and his teeth were just as white as the day they came in.,
When KayCee had her geriatric physcial a year ago we hadthe chest x-ray done and it should she had a very enlarged heart chamber. Her esophagus was suppse to go straight down, but her heart was so large, the esophagus arched over it. She was on blood pressure meds daily and a baby apsrin every other day, and even tho her heart was enlarged it was strong.
Then a few month ago we found thru ultrasound that she had a malformed kidney. However, it worked just fine--she never had a UTI in her life. By the way, with all that ultrasound of her abdomen that day, there was no tumor present.
When we adopted our golden mix, Honey in Dec. 2002 we were sure we had lost our minds. We didn't need 4 dogs. but what the heck, she had sotllen our heart. When we lost Hunter in Oct. 2003 to tht ProHeart6 injection, Kaycee really grieved for her brother. She would hardly eat and spent time under the tabgle instead of on the sofa. It took Honey's "nagging" to pull KyCee out of tahat depression and get he back to playing. I guess that is the rason Honey entired our lives,to help KayCee then and to help me now.
KayCee and Honey wer great pals. They would share their food and I had to watch to make sure they only ate their on food. If Honey gotonto the sofa in KayCee's spot, KayCee would lay on the floor until Honey oved, and then hop up onot HEr spot very fast. A few times, however she did trick Honey by going tothe backdoor and barking an when Honeycame nning to see what she was barking at, KayCee wuld dash and get HER spot. Honey would then lay onthe floorl Neither ever tried to make the other move.
KayCee would get on her back and wiggle and kick her back legs--we called it riding her air bicycle--and we would laugh and say 'KayCee is being a silly girl." It got to where she would do that and then stop with her head turned toward one of us, looking to see if we were watching. We would say she was being a silly girl and laugh and she would do it again She knew she was intertaining us.
She never chased after squirrels like all the others. I think she could have been laying on the patio and had hundreds of those critters running around and she would have just let out a woof or two. However she could hear a dog bark a mile away and she would have to answer. And she always howled at siren,s be they on the street around here or on TV, and since I watch a lot of cop shows, she did a LOT of howling.
She had picked up a bad habit from Honey. When I would come in the font door, she would spin and twirl in front of me like Honey did, jumping up as she spun. It was very irritating, but at the same time becuse of her knee surgeries, I was happy she could do this. So I never scolded her. And KayCee never chewed up anything, unlike Honey shredding paper. And unlike Honey she never couner surfed.
I could tell many stories of KayCee, but this is enough to let you know about her life. She had all those medical problems, but was always so happy, tail wagging, wanting to give and get attention. She didn't have a mean or aggressive bone in her body, thought everyone that came to this house came to see HER. She gave it her all to beat this cancer surgery, but it was not meant to be. and even at the end she gave to me. She died before my vet arrived and I didn't have to see her sent to the Bridge with a needl. She died on her own in my arms knowing she was so very much loved. We always said that God knew she was in for a lot of medical problems and He knew we would go to the ends of the earth for her and that is why He had her crawl up in Jerry's lap and us falli n love with her.
Even knowing what was ahead we would do it again--1000 times--. The love and joy she gave us was more than any amount of money. Now she and her brother are once more united and healthy and happy to be together and know they will see me again. They each left a little part in my heart and when I feel an unusual bump in my heart, I will know it is them playing together. I miss my Angel Face (Jerry's nick name for her) so much, but am thankful she is out of pain and she will never have cancer again.
Good bye my darling, until we se each other again.
KayCee in front of the bouganvilla. This isalmost the spot her ashes will be buried in, next to her brother Hunter.
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