Arrangements and Arrival!
5th October 2003: My sister Lisa phoned me at 11.45am - she told me to get my backside onto the Irish Animals website as she'd found our dream dog. At 11.58am I tentatively asked for details without staking a claim, but I was already in love. The nameless Boxer girl was in rescue as her owners wanted her and her 4 pups put to sleep at the local pound. She was dirty and malnourished, has saggy boobs from endless litters, and looked a good 5 years older than her true age, which was 6. By 2.21pm, I let myself send a private message to the rescue, and started the ball rolling.
6th October 2003: After filling out various forms (via email), and chatting more with the rescue, it was announced that Ruby would be making her way over to us in the UK. The race was on to find a way to get her to us, as we didn't have any transport. Offers of transport stints started flooding in, but arranging it so each could meet the next, and so on, was proving difficult. The name "Ruby" just seemed to fit. Even though we had never met her, I couldn't bear to think she didn't even have a pet name, just her IKC pedigree name.
11th October 2003: Ruby started her journey across to us with Nougatti (internet name), who dropped her off with Dasha in Wales in the middle of the night.
12th October 2003: After a restful night at Dasha's, Slipping Halo (internet name) set off with Ruby and met with Mel in Nottingham, who drove her to us. Mel admits she isn't the best at following directions, and I have to admit I'm probably the worst at giving them, so it wasn't a surprise to either of us when we got a phonecall saying she was lost. However, half an hour later, at about 6.45pm, Mel and Ruby arrived safely with us!
Happy New Beginnings!
Ruby settled in quickly and easily. We were soon enjoying walks in the park together, late night munchies, and slurpy dog snogs. We discovered she was well housetrained (no accidents yet!), knew many of the basic commands, such as "sit", "stay", "no", etc, but had no idea what a toy was. We soon sorted that out though!
Her body needed more time though - she had a nasty infection in her wound, and big lumps on her feet which were sore and irritated her to the point of licking them day and night. A trip to the vet was needed. He confirmed our suspicion that Ruby had been bred all of her adult life, and told us that she was lucky as if she'd had one more litter, it could've killed her. She had her spay stitches out 2 weeks later, and after 5 weeks finished her course of antibiotics, but her feet were still bothering her. We decided not to put her through another course, as she'd been affected quite strongly by them. We started her on a new diet (NatureDiet - see links page), and added decided to try a new approach. We bought some Echinacea tablets - known as a potent antibiotic and immune booster - Evening Primrose Oil, and Glucosamine for her joints. We bathed her feet in Coal Tar and Tea Tree soap, and used a Tea Tree and Lavendar Spray on them after. Her feet began to improve massively.
Altogether, we were over the moon. It was like she'd always been with us - we were smitten!
Sad Times Ahead
23rd November 2003: I was playing in the kitchen with Ruby, and after a good game of fetch (which never seemed to end with me getting the toy back for some reason!), I did her routine checkover. Her boobs had shrunk somewhat since the day we got her, but we knew they'd never go back to what they were after the years of being bred. I'll never forget checking her that night - a lump had appeared close to one of her nipples. She alredy had lots of lumps on her body that hadn't grown since we got her, so we weren't concerned about them at that point. The lump in her boob was only tiny, but it was new, and hadn't been there the week before. I tried not to be too concerned, and asked friends online what they thought. It was a Sunday, so I waited to phone the vets til the next day.
27th November 2003: 6pm was the time of her appointment. I spent the day worrying, as the lump had grown a bit to the size of a pea since I felt it on the Sunday. I tried to stay calm, and Barrie and I got her ready for her appointment by spoiling her rotten, and gently bathing her feet again. We got her coat on, and set off, fag in hand, at 5.35pm. We arrived early and I sat and waited for the new vet to arrive. When Ruby and I were called in, I truly thought the vet was going to laugh at me for being so paranoid, but he confimed our worst fears.
After checking her skin lumps, and having a feel of the mammary lump, he told me that he was pretty certain that she had a malignant cancer. It wasn't the Mast Cell Tumours (skin lumps) that worried him, it was the rate of growth of the new mammary lump. I asked him what our options were, and he said there were three options normally used. The first would be to remove the lumps under general anaesthetic, and treat her immediately with chemotherapy. The second was to treat her with chemo until the lumps shrank and then operate to remove them all. The third was to sedate her and take a needle aspiration to confirm things, but he didnt feel this was a good option, as these tests were generally inconclusive, and it would mean risking a sedation. Neither of the other options were open to us either, as he felt there was too much of a risk to put her under anaesthetic, as she was too old. My mind screamed "Too old?! She's six!", but six IS elderly for a Boxer (life expectancy of 9-10 years), especially a malnourished Boxer with her history and so many lumps. He gave her 4-6 months as a maximum estimate.
Barrie and I had talked about what we would do if it was the big C, and had decided not to put her through anything really drastic, as we wanted her to live a happy and painfree life, not one of operations and recovery, so I thanked the vet and went to pay. The nurse at the reception desk didn't know what to say, and I was glad, as all I could think of was paying and getting out and home. I sorted the bill, walked out of the door and brought our baby home. It was raining, and it has every day since.
29th November 2003: Today I started building this site. It was important for me to get the words out and the dates right before I forget or am too upset to remember. Two new lumps have appeared in Ruby's boobs, both on the same side as the other. I think I can feel another, but it's hard to say. Last night I cried because I felt I was keeping a nasty secret from Ruby, but I soon knew that she was aware of her illness. We spent the night cuddling up, and she licked my face, neck and ears in her sloppy way. She climbed up onto my lap and cuddled me back as I cried. I tell her I love her every day - I know my pet free friends think I'm crazy, but I do. Today Ruby has been sleepy, but she still seems happy and painfree. She didn't want to go out for a walk, but she did have a sniff around the garden. She trotted around after the kids giving them kisses and trying to nick off with their toys, but it wore her out and she slept at my feet while I built this page. I've noticed her panting more, and coughing a bit, but I'm not sure if I'm just being paranoid. I'm going to go now and curl up with her on the sofa.
30th November 2003: Ruby did much better today. She got up and played like a madwoman, and developed a strange new behaviour - cushion sucking!! I said to Barrie "I wonder what's got into her today?" - when I came on the computer there was an email from a friend saying she'd received some messages for Ruby from people who had started long distance Reiki on her. Now I'm quite a sceptic person, and although I've seen the benefits of one on one Reiki, have never really believed in long distance healing. I'm not sure whether I do now, but watch this space (I'll let you judge for yourselves!). Anyway, a good day even by a healthy Ruby's standards! After all the larking about, Ruby crashed on the sofa and snored happily.
28th July 2004: Well, it's been so long since I last updated, I don't know where to start. Back in December (just after we last updated), Ruby hit rock bottom and we feared the worst. She couldn't get up and wasn't eating, it looked like she had given up. She was still having difficulty breathing, so much so she couldn't get around without coughing and spluttering. To top it off, the vet confirmed that the cancer had indeed spread to Ruby's lungs, hence her difficulty breathing. On the 18th December, we made the decision to let her go, but she had other plans. A package arrived in the post from an internet admirer of Ruby's (Stanley the Greyhound), and what I will forever term as the Christmas Miracle took place. Ruby fought back. She tried. And she is still with us now (along with her pressie from Stanley - a gingerbread man toy who we named Stan in his honour). At the moment, you wouldn't know she had cancer at all. She has improved so much she is nearly a normal dog, although her arthritis and chest do bother her from time to time. So remembering that the vet gave her 4-6 months maximum and she is still going strong 8 months on keeps us all strong. We take each day at a time and pray for lots more. We know that she's living on borrowed time now, but we couldn't have expected better so far. She has enriched our lives more than anyone could imagine. She's our little soldier.
Ruby's Diary