My fantastically awesome dog called Jack sadly passed away this morning.
Those of you who never saw him, or didn't know I had a dog, well I'll tell you a little bit about him...
He was a small Jack Russell cross Cairn Terrier who we got about 8 or 9 years ago - he was around 18 months old at the time and came from a rescue shelter. In his prime he was a lively and active dog who always seemed to have a smile (sounds odd, but those with pets will know what I mean). He was a happy dog, and would never ever have hurt anybody - he'd be more tempted to lick people to death :)
A month ago, we took him to the vets and he was diagnosed with advanced Cushings syndrome. It's a disease where too many steroids are relased by the animal's body, and it causes lethargy, an engarged stomach, and mobility issues. We took him because he couldn't get up the stairs anymore, and was struggling on his back legs.
Unfortunately, in the last week, whilst more tests were being done, he took a turn for the worse and started to refuse to eat, and yesterday he seemed to be in a lot of pain.
He stopped breathing in the middle of the night a couple of times, and this morning the vet decided that the only humane thing to do was to end his life by lethal injection. He was so weak that after only a small dose of the injection he passed away.
So it's been a bit of a sad day for us here today - my mum and dad are pretty devastated about it, with them both being retired, Jack provided some company for them, so they're pretty upset about it.
Anyway, in a couple of weeks we're going to start looking for another dog - not to replace Jack, because he was very much a part of the family, but to give another rescue dog another chance.
Rest in Peace, Jack. We'll miss you.
