Sherbert Dib Dab the third

Thursday night, Sherbert, who had been improving, took a turn for the worse. He had been finding it easier to walk but suddenly his back legs weren't strong enough to lift him and, being a fighter, he basically stayed sat and used his front legs to drag himself forward. He was due to see the vets on Friday anyway for a checkup so we fed him in his cage and gave him his anti-inflammatories and let him sleep. Next day he was pretty much the same and when John took him to see Ivan he had to be lifted into the car and Ivan had to come outside to see him.In Ivan's opinion we had three options, wait and see (which he thought was pointless), surgery (with limited chance of success) and to have him put to sleep. He referred Sherb to Crowthorne as they have a vet that specialises in spinal problems who could give us a better idea of his chances. He gave him a big dose of morphine to help with the pain and John bought him home, where he just lay in his cage and slept. Strangely he did eat his dinner eagerly so the morphine must have really helped with the pain.

Our appointment this morning was early but he wasn't any better (he did managed to stand for a bit in the garden but his right leg was doing nothing and he soon collapsed). John built a long ramp to help him up into the car and, being Sherbert he then sat in the back and barked his head off for a little bit.

Phil the specialist came out to the car to look at Sherb and then helped John get him inside. Once inside it was pretty clear that we really only had 2 options - surgery and to have him put to sleep but the more he talked the obvious it became that surgery would lead to a long and painful recovery (6 months +)with no guarantee of getting him back to a mobile state or having no pain, possibility( as he was getting on in years) to then have him reach a natural end in a matter of months. He made it fairly clear that if it was his dog he wouldn't go down that route.

He had already had 2 lots of painful surgery back when he was younger and, though he came through it fine, I don't think he would have wanted to go through it again so we chose to let him go.

He went so fast I didn't really have time to reassure him.Then we had to leave him there to be picked up by the crematorium.

He was a major pain in the ass - far to clever for his own good, always opening doors and getting into stuff he shouldn't, fighting with other dogs (including poor Thai) but he was very affectionate and loyal and I loved that stupid ball of fluff. He has been part of our lives for 9 years, monday would have been his birthday - We will miss him.