We celebrated Pilgrims 10th birthday March 9, 2007.
Three days later he was dead. Here is Nell's letter.
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Pilgrim died last night - just 3 days after his 10th
birthday.
On Friday, we drove 4 hours to have his pictures made.
On Saturday we went on more fun for dogs adventures -
short trips to the beach, to the maritime forest, to a a
picnic area/dock. On Sunday we went to the celebration
of the anniversary of the Civil War Battle of New Bern.
Pilgrim liked the attention and his deafness was an
advantage during the musket and cannon shooting.
Sunday evening we visited our friend Nancy and her
dog, Grace. We noticed Pilly drooling. He ate his
supper fine.
Sunday night he was out many times and basically
spent the night outside. He was alert but not interested
in eating on Monday. In the afternoon, he passed a
sock and later red liquid. We have years of experience
with this dog and usually he is better after the sock
passes, but this time he got progressively worse. We
gathered our stuff and went to the ER in Cary, about 2
hours away. He may have been breathing when he got
to the parking lot but wasn't when they rushed out to
him. It was about 10:45.
We will have necropsy results in 5 days and they will
mail the ashes later. I imagine the autopsy will show
that there was another sock, the first one caused
damage in an old dog, or perhaps something totally
unexpected. John, I, and CJ visited with his empty
body for a while. They took a paw print.
[The necropsy showed that he died of toxic shock. The
sock stopped his intestines for a while and toxins built
up. As I suspected, it would likely not have killed him
when he was younger, but it was too much for an old
frail dog.]
Already the changes. John put away Sunny's styrofoam
steps that Pilgrim has increasingly needed and realized
he was saying good-bye to Pilgrim's chapter in our lives.
We can now pick up all the extra mats all over the
house.
So many things we remember. Until a few weeks ago,
every time the peanut butter jar opened he was there.
The shuffling, skittering sound he made when he
walked. The "tickets" in the van and all over the house
to reward or bribe him for doing what we wanted. We
are used to walking around him and to having him come
visit.
So many people commented on the tribute I wrote for
his birthday. Who would have guessed that it was an
eulogy. I had not even finished sending out the birthday
story.
Pilgrim 3/9/97 - 3/12/07
So empty here today. We get so many reminders.
Nell
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See Pilgrim's Page on the Longlease Bernese Mountain
Dogs site.