Furby Wranglings

Our Chow Orion passed away this afternoon, around
3:45pm in his sleep. He was diagnosed with inoperable
liver tumors last October, and had been doing pretty
well up until about two weeks ago when he had a major
seizure meltdown and we rushed him to the vet's
office. She gave Orion some valium via IV and then
sent him home with a spare syringe of valium and a
warning that it would probably happen again as his
system tried to handle the toxins from the cancer.

Orion actually bounced back pretty well that time, so
when he went into meltdown again last night we hoped
for a repeat; I gave him the valium and he seemed more
or less content to sleep it off until around 11 pm
when he got restless and started making this weird
part groan, part whining sound periodly. I ended up
staying up most of the night with him, obviously not
getting much sleep, convinced that Orion was in pain
and feeling totally helpless because I'd already used
the valium.

My husband got up this morning around 8:30, sent me to bed
and called the vet, who assured him that Orion
probably(!) wasn't in pain to the extent that I
thought, and that it sounded like we were doing
everything possible to make him comfortable (since the
liver was involved, any pain medication would be next
to useless as it is the liver that processes those
drugs). When I woke up again at 11am my husband told me all
this, I checked on Orion who seemed reasonably
comfortable and inclined to snooze, so he and I left
our daughter in charge while we ran errands and got
groceries (postponed from last night due to Orion's
condition). Orion licked our faces when we got back,
but didn't have any interest in food or water.

Husband said he'd stay with Orion while Daughter and I
went out briefly to the mall since he had to tweak the
computer a bit.....when we got back, Husband was in the
bathroom and Orion hadn't moved.... I went to hug him
and realized that he wasn't breathing and his legs
were all stiff. Husband said Orion had whimpered once
right after we'd left, but that was all. He
apparently passed away peacefully in his sleep.

Long story short, we're planning to bury Orion
tomorrow in my husband's parents' backyard provided the
ground isn't too difficult to thaw. We found out with
Chani that cremation is very expensive, so we'd like
to avoid it if possible. Our daughter especially is
taking it hard-- she feels bad about insisting we go
shopping this afternoon -- but we all are pretty
broken up. For all the trouble he's caused us over
the past few years (seizures, heat stroke, breaking
windows, etc.), Orion was a very special Chow and an
important part of our lives, especially since Chani
passed.

We're going to miss that fuzzy odiferous bottomless
pit very very much.

Thanks for listening.

I swear.... half the grey hairs (carefully touched up with Lady Clairol) on my head have been caused by that Brain-Damaged Bottomless Mooch of a Gaseous Nebula Masquerading as a Canine we call 'Orion', and considering he's only been living with us for five and a half years, that's probably saying something.... something that's probably lewd, crude, and profane.

Orion has Liver Cancer. Non-operable, of course; and forget about treatment. If we were rich and famous maybe we'd be able to find some experimental procedure or chemotherapy.... but us lower middle class income types are *SOL*. Our vet, bless her heart, did research on holistic, alternative treatments.... and now the poor beast is ingesting vitamins, minerals, herbs and spices (KFC, anyone?), and eating a special formula dog food that is supposed to help with digestion and possibly 'starve' the nasty killer crabs into remission. This, I might add, in addition to his seizure medication.

I'm starting to think it's something in the local well water. All three of my darlings: 2-year old Kavhi had bone cancer, Chani developed liver cancer near the end of her long and mostly happy life (15+ years!), and now our dear Master Lickatongue, the Orion Nebulae.

Yesterday morning, he literally scared the snot out of me: I came out to the living room and found him sitting oddly in a very awkward location.... and he couldn't move his hind legs.... I was terrified, thinking that he'd tried to climb up on the sofa and fallen, and either injured his spine or ruptured something internally..... I managed to pull him into a more accessible location, with the thought that I'd have to call our vet and have her send the Animal Ambulance and if he WAS paralyzed or ruptured.... I was crying my eyes out because if he was, then I really didn't think I'd have a choice other than to have our Mr. Fuzzy put to sleep....

I woke our daughter up, told her to get dressed and what the situation seemed to be, then went to get dressed myself intending to call the vet as soon as her office opened..... Orion had spent roughly the last thirty minutes lying on the living room floor, every so often sitting up but apparently unable to move his hind legs....

And Daughter yelled "mom!" and I ran out of the bathroom half-naked and there was Orion standing up on all four legs, wagging his tail and looking reproachfully at his food dish as if asking 'where's breakfast, Mom?'

Long story short: the vet thinks it might have been either temporary paralysis due to pressure from the tumors, or an atypical seizure. Orion was sort of spaced-out the rest of the day but otherwise normal; and today he was his usual pesky, mooching, demanding self again -- thank God. Last October when Orion was diagnosed, the vet told us she couldn't say how long he might have -- it could be a week, a month, half a year -- but as long as his appetite stayed healthy and he wasn't vomiting, and he wasn't in obvious pain and his attitude was good, that we should enjoy him for all he's worth.....

Meanwhile, the Mother Chow Goddess worries and watches more of her hair turn grey.