That was a special story, sandooch! We never appreciate how loyal our dogs are to us. And, we don't give them credit for feeling emotions.
One memory that comes to mind for me is the night before I decided to have my Lab's leg amputated. She was almost 11 years old when the tumor ruptured on her leg and we found out she had cancer. Off and on over two weeks, I had to cart her back and forth to the Vets or the emergency clinic to get her bandages redone and have her wound checked.
The two nights before I made my decision we were at the emergency clinic. Our veterinarian had told us three days earlier that we had to do something soon because she was slowly bleeding to death.
So, we were at the clinic getting her bandage changed. A family was in the next booth waiting to find out if their dog would survive a car accident. They got good news. They sent a family member out for sandwiches which they brought back while we were waiting to be seen.
While we were in our booth, Sierra started to scoot over. I was watching her to see what she was doing. Soon, she was sitting in front of their booth. She was hungry! Here my poor dog was slowly dying before my eyes and all she could think about was that she wanted a bite of sandwich.
It was that point that I decided that I'd do everything I could to save her life if possible. She obviously still wanted to live. I called the specialist the next day and found out they could not do the amputation for two weeks. That just wouldn't work. The next morning Sierra was not herself and didn't want breakfast. That meant something was really wrong. She never passed up food.
I called the Vets and a half hour later they had the room ready for us. I really didn't know if we'd be saying goodbye or they could help her. She ended up having her leg amputated that day and living 3 1/2 years more.
I'll never forget that moment for as long as I lived. I learned a little bit about survival that night.
(I guess that was more than one memory, but it all sort of fit together.)
