Mar 16 2004
Pepe
Het is een rothond soms, maar hij ziet er soms ook er ‘cute’ uit, als ie zich weer eens onder z’n witte dekentje heeft verstopt.
Mar 16 2004
Het is een rothond soms, maar hij ziet er soms ook er ‘cute’ uit, als ie zich weer eens onder z’n witte dekentje heeft verstopt.
Jun 10 2010
We, Plume Regina, declare that our bosses are cruel.
[Long time no post, sorry for that. Twitter (https://twitter.com/MareMtl) seems to be easier and faster for quick and dirty updates, and I don’t have much patience/stamina/time for writing longer posts. Excuses, excuses, excuses… I should, there are some things I want to write about, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to writing them.]
Plume is doing well. Not so much today though. She has been sterilized two days ago and was licking her wounds. So Alison thought it was better to put this Elizabethan collar on. Now she’s sitting in her basket —she refuses to lie down— panting at a fast pace. I’m tempting to take the thing off again, she’s right: I am very cruel.
Poupoune and Plume are getting along quite well, the animosity of the first weeks is gone. Poupoune still growls now and then, but they sometimes even touch each other when they’re lying on the bed. Something that never happened with Poupoune and Pepe. Plume’s size makes Poupoune less bossy and I think she secretly likes it. No need for to constantly play the boss.
Plume still tries to play with Poupoune, especially when Poupoune is excited just before we go on a walk —she get much more walks these days—, but Poupoune is still refusing to play. In the dog park Plume sometimes plays with other dogs, but she doesn’t have good social skills. She barks at dogs when she wants to play, but her barking is a bit menacing so the other dogs aren’t sure what to do. She’s much better and quieter with smaller dogs and made some friends with those.
Aug 22 2009
It’s almost two weeks now since we had Pepe killed. Every day there are many moments I’m reminded of him. When I look next to the bed: his crate, where he used to sleep in, albeit quite a while ago since after last summer he almost always slept in our bed. When I open the drawer with the dog collars and leashes: no red harness anymore. When I come home: no jumping and yapping dog that is so exited and happy to see me. When I open the fridge: no can of special soft food. When I load the dishwasher: much less bowls, forks and small spoons, used to prepare his food. When I sit outside on our terrace: his grave next to me.
Memories of him are good and I don’t cringe and tear-up anymore when I realize I won’t ever see him again.
Some of the reminders are quite negative though and I don’t mind that some things have changed. When I sleep: no heat emitting dog in between us, who needs to be carried outside three times a night to pee. Uninterrupted sleep and not nearly as much dog hair in the bed. When I walk in the house: no chance of walking in a puddle of dog piss. When I open the garbage can: no weewee pads, no stinky smell of decaying dog pee. When we go in the car to go for a walk: not howling Pepe in the back.
Poupoune in the mean time, really enjoys Pepe’s demise. She has changed a lot now she is the unchallenged alpha dog again, and is really much happier than before. She is also more affectionate, checking us out all the time: “What am I supposed to do?” It doesn’t help that she is very, very deaf and easily startled. The only thing she really misses is the Pepe-food. She cleaned up after he finished eating, and when she got the chance, emptied his bowl. She hasn’t given up hope, and expects that I will give her some soft food when she stares at me long enough while making complaining noises. I have to disappoint her, until she develops a disease of her own she has to eat her regular kibble.
She also gets more walks, since it’s much less of an expedition to walk just her. The only thing she hates even more than before is when I lock her up in the kitchen when I leave to work at a client. Then she apparently feels really alone, even though her companion was very annoying.
I write this post because I’m procrastinating. I’m working on the update of “Clean My Screen” and after some deliberation I’ve decided to put Pepe in as one of the cleaners, even though he is dead. He has a distinct cleaning style and an enormous long tongue and it has to be preserved. It took me a while but now I can see it as an homage and a monument.
I shot the footage of him licking during his last weekend, but he still looks and acts very healthy. Canned tuna water on a piece of glass does wonders. The video had to be cleaned (removing blemishes and blacking out the background) and I did that last week. It was a bit surreal, staring and retouching images of a dead dog for a couple of days (yes, it’s an elaborate process) but I could handle it by just pretending it was a random Chihuahua. But now i have to dub his licking sounds and that feels kind of spooky. It’s like I’m somehow reviving him by adding sound to the silent video.
However it has to be done, so back to work. The results can be admired soon on an iPhone or iPod touch near you.
May 13 2008
You really have to entice Pepe to start eating the special low protein food he gets to prevent his kidneys to deteriorate . Mix the food with peanut butter and water. Heat it up in the microwave. Dip your finger in it, put it in front of him. He looks elsewhere. Try again. Wipe some food on his lips so he licks it off. Sometimes he start eating then, sometimes he doesn’t. If not, try harder. Often we present two kinds of food so he has another choice and can decide that food A is worse than food B so he’ll eat some of food A, gets into it and then also tries food B.
If after that he still doesn’t want to eat we put the food away so Poupoune doesn’t eat it and try again in a few hours.
All in all he’s doing quite well on the new regime. He gained some weight and in general seems to be happy and in good health.
Mar 11 2008
Pepe often covers his bowl of food so he can eat it later when he doesn’t feel nauseated. He does this by using his nose to move sand over his food. Since we are in short supply of sand in our kitchen, the dishtowel that we put his bowl on has to do. And it does.
Now he only needs to find a solution to that pesky creature called Poupoune, who keeps eating his food the moment Pepe leaves the kitchen. Even when he covered it.
Feb 23 2008
What a difference a day or two makes. Yesterday I brought Pepe to the vet, who was very concerned and wanted me to take him to the animal hospital (the same place where I spent 1500 dollar for Poupoune a couple of years ago) to stay on an IV for the weekend to get some fluids and nutrients into him. She feared he had an ulcer and wanted to do lots of tests to come to a diagnose. I decided to only treat his symptoms, so she gave him an antacid and some subcutaneous saline. After paying 100 bucks I went home, with him wrapped in a blanket under my coat in the softly falling snow.
He slept all day, but then ate a little bit, and didn’t vomit. By the time Alison came home from the airport after midnight he was already feeling much better. He greeted her with his signature dance and she was very happy to see him alive. Today he’s even feeling better and eats and drinks, although not in very big quantities. But he is still frail. He lost almost a pound in body weight mostly of a lack of fluids. That is not healthy and we really have to fatten him up over the next weeks. He is very low on reserves.
I suspect him from pulling these stunts just to make us bond stronger to him. That and to be on the front-page of loglog every day.
I still need to record his dance for posterity; fortunately it seems he gave me a chance to do it. Now I only have to make him dance on camera. So far when I point the camera at him he immediately stops dancing and just stares at me and barks. His bark is just loud and annoying and not nearly as cute as him dancing in circles.
Feb 21 2008
I might have been way too optimistic about Pepe’s longevity. He has hardly eaten during the last few days, and when he eats he starts to vomit soon thereafter. He sleeps all day, and when not he’s very frail and trembles a lot. He still wags his tail though, so there is some liveness in him, but he’s definitely not feeling well.
I just found a big puddle of watery vomit with blood in it.
Not good. Tomorrow to the vet, I hope she can keep him alive until the weekend when Alison comes back from a business-trip out West.
Feb 18 2008
Pepe is ill. His kidneys don’t work very well, he’s drinking and peeing a lot, and he slowly loses weight. Getting the diagnose of kidney failure took a while because the vet wanted to check his blood and urine a couple of times to make sure it wasn’t a temporary illness that could be cured with some anti-biotic. She prescribed him antibiotics for a month ówhich made him feel nauseated causing even more weight lossó but it didn’t help.
So he is going to die. Not in a couple of months, but probably in a year of two. There is no cure but we can stretch his life a little, and improve his quality of life by giving him magical kidney powder. In order to make sure the medication is not having bad side-effects he also needs blood-tests every 3 months.
All this is not going to break the bank (it’ll cost slightly more than dollar a day) but during the last few months we thought long and hard what our limits are. Not only financial, but also moral. Should one really spend thousands of dollars to prolong the life of a dog (who had a good 12 years on earth) while for the same amount of money you could keep some people alive? It starts with a few dollars but since you have started, when and where do you stop? We’ve decided to treat him until the treatment stops working or until he has pain and isn’t happy anymore. But no big interventions.
Just thinking about our boundaries makes us feel guilty. Who are we to decide about life and death? But in reality we do. Our pets won’t survive without us. They need us for food and shelter and in return they keep us company and give us affection. But all these questions and doubts come up with Pepe, a dog we don’t have such a tight bond with compared to Poupoune. If Poupoune was ill we probably would go much further in extending her life.
Sure, Pepe is always good humoured, dances adorably (although not on camera) when he is excited and is very snugly and likes to be under your sweater and peep out his head like a joey. He sleeps 20 hours a day, preferably under a blanket, can’t go out for walks in the winter, sometimes poops and pees in places he’s not supposed to and, above all, he is not very bright.
Even though he’s ill he still does all of that. He’s not suffering as far as we can tell, and we give him special canned dog food specially formulated for dogs with kidney failure. Unfortunately Poupoune is very jealous he’s getting special treatment and she’s even grumpier than before.
Dec 6 2007
There were two of them. Two very big moose, right there in our backyard!
Slowly, silently, they stepped over the low fence into the garden. They were huge. Pepe started yapping at them. One moose stepped forward and crushed Pepe under its gigantic foot. It then bowed down and started with ripping Pepe’s hind leg from his body. It was a rather bloody affair, and Pepe, still conscious, cried as he used to do when Alison cut his nails, but then louder.
From the porch I watched the things unfold in absolute shock and horror but at the same time I couldn’t stop looking. I just stood there, frozen. Didn’t, couldn’t interfere and totally forgot to take pictures. Strange thoughts went through my mind like “at least he won’t pee on the floors anymore” and “finally I’ll get uninterrupted nights sleep”. Both guilt for my horrible thoughts and relief over Pepe’s sudden demise filled my mind. In the meantime the moose had finished eating the final bits of Pepe, and he and his mate slowly stepped away, back into the lane-way. A bloody patch in the snow was all that was left of the dog.
Poupoune, when asked for comments, thought it was an excellent dream.
Aug 4 2009
Pepe
We killed Pepe today.
No, don’t worry; not with a saw, a spade or a pitchfork. And we didn’t even do it ourself. The vet did the dirty work with two injections. This photo was taken during the dress rehearsal on Sunday. I dug his grave and Alison let him try it out.
Eight years ago Pepe and I got off to a rough start. He bit me the first time I slept in his (and Alison’s) bed and ate half of my expensive mouth guard a week later. I wrote to a friend that this licking Chihuahua monster was awful. But over the years we got closer. And because Alison was away a lot I took care of him a lot in the past months. Fed him every couple of hours, regularly carried him outside so he could pee (and didn’t do it all inside) and tucked him in under his blanket.
I’ll miss him.
For a longer report of the events, illustrated with my photos, I direct you to Alison’s story, I’m too tired to type more right now.
On her weblog above you can also find some previous posts she wrote (eloquently) about the final weeks of Pepe.
And you can follow this link for much more Pepe.
(No need for sympathies in comments or emails; he had a good life and we’re fine.)
By mare • dogs, english, health, montréal