All photos © Cattie Coyle
You may have noticed that things have been slow here at AMG lately. I wish I could say I took the summer off and traveled to exotic locations (or at least Europe), but sadly, that was not the case. Earlier this summer, our girl Sadie was diagnosed with cancer. By the time it was discovered, there was nothing conventional medicine could do but help with pain management according to the vets and specialists we consulted.
So naturally we turned to alternative options and tried all the alternative cancer treatments we could think of: Tong Ren, acupuncture, prayer, etc.; used a variety of herbs, supplements, homotoxicology, homeopathy, and more; made diet changes – but she just kept getting worse. It was an incredibly difficult, sad and exhausting time. To watch your best friend and favorite family member deteriorate in front of your eyes while there is nothing you can do is truly heartbreaking (as I know you all know as well). I lost my Mom to cancer 8 years ago, and I saw the same pattern of good and bad days with Sadie as I did with her. It is such a grim hope and despair rollercoaster ride, cruel to everyone involved.
Sadie was a fighter and a tough little girl. Towards the end, she was barely able to walk, hated several of her medicines, and had bouts of UTIs and diarreah, and yet she tried her best and never complained. But eventually, she lost her fight. Almost two weeks ago now, she suddenly stopped eating and drinking, and barely lifted her head off the couch. We knew it was time to make that awful decision, and our vet ended her suffering.
The house is so empty without her and not a day goes by when I don’t sob helplessly and wish I could just give her at least one more hug. She was such a special and much loved dog, not just by us, but by our friends, relatives, neighbors – everyone. A friend of mine once described one of her former dogs as her “soulmate dog”, and I think Sadie was mine. I remember saying to my husband the first week we had her “we will never have a dog like this again”.
She was funny, sweet, curious, affectionate, quite the gourmand, loved cozying up on the couch with us (everybody had to be home for it to be perfect, you could tell), and wasn’t afraid to let her opinions be known. In Sweden, we have a saying: “beloved child has many names” and that certainly was true for Sadie. To us, she was Sadie girl, Sadie skrutt (a Swedish term of endearment), tiny girl, skrutt skrutt, tiny skrutt, popcorn girl (she smelled like popcorn), The best little girl in the whole wide world, Fraulein skrutt…
Sadie, we will miss you forever. Life is not the same without you, and I desperately hope that I will see you again someday.
Louise, thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am so sorry about Sassey; it is such a heart wrenching thing to see your animals suffer and not be able to help – one of the worst things in life, in my opinion.
Cattie, Iam so sorry and this is a long time late as I just discovered your website. It is one of the hardest things to go through. The only thing we can do is Love our pets & enjoy them for as much time as they have with us. I have lost my Sassey in April after almost fourteen years. She started having seizures that had never happened before. I had just started using ylo oils that same day ! I thought well this must be the reason! Which was more than likely wrong. I read your article mentioning liver disease & acupressure, it was very interesting. Her numbers were quite high. I changed her diet, cooking for her. She was given meds they slowed down the seizures but eventually was on predniisone, which stopped them for awhile. The meds apparently did not do any good on her liver. A Vet told me to watch copper in her diet also. We tried all & everything. I have been aware of ingredients in dry kibble.for many years. So now with another dog, Rhodesian Ridgeback, doing all possible to educate myself even more for a healthier life for her. Thank you for this website.
Thank you so much, Sheila. I’m really touched at the outpouring of support I have received from everyone – it’s a great comfort to know that people are thinking of us.
Sorry to hear of your loss, Cattie. Love the blog! The pictures of Sadie are amazing!!! Hold on to all those special memories!!
Best
Sheila
(current student at Bancroft)