Secret was the sweetest little Yorkie anyone could have ever had. He never played rough or anything as a puppy, which we found a little odd. When he turned either 1 or 2, we gave him these tennis ball things for his birthday. He was having a great time with them, until he started to do this “honking” cough. Since we were going on vacation and bringing him with us, we didn’t have time to get him to a vet. So we figured he was just excited over the toy and it would pass shortly. But it never did. He honked all night and day, so we finally decided to take him to a vet. We found one, and he told us that he would have to do some X-rays on Secret. We waited and finally the vet came out with some X-rays of Secret’s chest and throat.
He told us that Secret had a collapsed trachea, but it didn’t seem bad at that time, and he would probably get better. So we never thought much of it again, until Secret was 4. We left him with the owner of his father because we were going to Ohio to visit my sister at her college.
When we got back, he seemed fine, but then started coughing alot. I just thought it was because he missed us so much and was getting excited. But when my mom picked me up from school the next day, she told me that she had taken him to the vet because he had stopped breathing. She said that when she came home from the grocery store, she looked at him and his eyes were bulging and he wasn’t breathing at all. So she rushed to the usual vet we go to, but they couldn’t help him because their power had gone out from the storm that day. So she went to another vet and a guy looked at Secret and thought there was nothing wrong with him. (How could you think there’s nothing wrong with a dog that isn’t breathing?) There was only one other vet she knew of,
so she went there.
The vet took Secret and said that he would have to put a tube in his throat to help him breathe. He told her that in a few hours she would have to come and pick up Secret and take him to a vet specialist place for animals that are in pretty bad shape. After we got home, we went to the vet place to pick up Secret and bring him to the other place. There he was put in an oxygen room to help him breathe better. My mom gave him her robe that he slept on every night so he could be comfortable.
The next day, the vets there called us and said that he seemed to be a little better and had been breathing out of the oxygen room for a while, so we could take him home. But we had to bring him back right away if he started to have trouble breathing. We kept him home for a few hours, but then he stated to have trouble breathing. This time I knew he wasn’t going to be with us much longer. I got my mom to cut off some of his fur to remember him by. We decided it would be best to put him to sleep so he wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. Then we took him back.
When we got there, I just couldn’t bear knowing that we were going to kill him, so I pleaded to my mom that he stay in the oxygen room just one more night to see if he might get a little better. My mom decided that we could and one of the vets told us that they would call us if anything happened. I told Secret goodbye hoping that he would recover.
The next morning we got a call. Secret’s heart had stopped beating while he was asleep. I just couldn’t believe it. He was only four…
I will love you always,
| Secret |
| Jul |