Tosh part two
That was a very sad event. We all gave Tosh the best evening we could and hugged her with all we could give the next morning. There was only a small chance that she would survive this and have some more time with us all.
Rick Anderson, general surgeon, and Greg Burke, veterinarian, met Tosh and me at the clinic the next morning about 10 .After examination all three of us agreed that it did not look good. Greg was to be the anesthetist, Rick the surgeon., And I was the assistant.
Tosh was very happy about all this attention but her strength was very low.
We lifted Tosh onto the operating room table. Greg proceeded to put her asleep, ….. after I said my goodbyes. We laid her down on her back and tied down her legs. Rick and I scrubbed up and put on her surgical attire. Greg gave the thumbs up go ahead then Rick made a long central incision vertically down Tosh’s abdomen. I assisted with the retractors. Once the perineum was open there was a large, and I mean large, gush of blood stained fluid that erupted and ended up all over the floor. Rick and I explored her abdomen and found a baseball sized tumour on her spleen. There were metastatic lesions throughout her belly that was causing partial, if not complete, bowel obstruction. This was obviously terminal disease. Rick did offer to bypass areas of obstruction with some fancy rerouting of the bowel, but we all agreed that it was futile. Over our masks, Greg and Rick made eye contact with me, and I to tearfully agreed to terminate the procedure and peacefully end Tosh’s life.
Greg gave her barbiturate drugs intravenously. Tosh peacefully stopped breathing and her body went limp. Rick Anderson’s pager then went off and he was called to go into the emergency department at one of the Windsor hospitals. I thanked him profusely.
He left the operating suite, changed his clothes and proceeded to his car.
Greg Burke who is a very close friend of mine , loved Tosh almost as much as I did. We were both crying out loud with tears streaming down our cheeks
The two of us and closed up Tasha’s ones and put her into a large plastic bag. I wanted Tosh to be cremated so that we could scatter her ashes in the many places that she loves so much.
The two of us then closed up Tosh’s wounds, and lifted her into a bag. We then put her bagged remains into a large freezer. The following week she would be picked up and brought to a crematorium.
Greg and I both still in our scrubs cleaned off the table, and then got down on her hands and knees to clean up the mess on the floor. I remember clearly that both of us were sobbing loudly at the time. I sure loved that dog.
Now back home I drove. I did phone the family about the outcome ,so they were all aware. They were waiting for me outside the front door as I arrived home. We had group hugs ,and cried ourselves out. They all felt sorry for me as I did for them.
I eventually just went for a long walk to settle down.
Those were sad days but we all recovered eventually , and counted ourselves thankful and lucky to have had such a marvellous dog.
When Tosh’s ashes were returned to us, we began to execute our plans of remembrance.
Her ashes were sprinkled around the yard, in the pool, in Pike Creek and into Lake St Clair as well. A small amount of them were sprinkled in the flower bed which she’s so much like to lay in.
On our next trip to Dick Lake, one of Tosha’s most beloved areas, we brought her we brought up the urn and what remained of her ashes.
We sprinkled some of Tosh into Dick Lake and then encased the urn and what was left of the ashes in cement, with her name on it. We placed this at the base of a tree in the Beaver Hall of Fame… A very hallowed spot for us all.
All of this was done with appropriate ceremony and words of remembrance.
The following year, my oldest daughter showed me a crop for leaf clovers that grew around her stone.
That seemed fitting and reflected the character of this beloved pet.