Roxy Rest in Peace

We've come through a tough 4 days. (mostly Mommy) Roxy wasn't "herself" on Friday - mostly lack of appetite and lying in her bed (she and Ty have they own beds but sometimes sleep together). On Saturday, she struggled to stretch and use her hind legs, so Mommy & Roxy were off to the vet for a check up. Things quickly progressed from there as she went from a limp to completely paralyzed from the neck down by this morning (Monday). She spent the weekend in the veterinary hospital and then to critical care. After endless tests, specialists determined she had a tumour or mass pressing on her neck/nerves/spine that caused paralysis. To compound the problem, she was now struggling to breath. After several consultations, the specialist thought she had a 10% chance of living overnight tonight without suffocating. The vet and surgeon both agreed that although a mass may take time to grow, once it presses on the nerves/spine, the symptoms are immediate. They presented the options for surgeries, recovery, rehabilitation (i.e. learning to walk again) and likely possibility of additional surgeries to complete the first and/or to remove future growths. There was little optimism that Roxy would continue to breath on her own during a surgery, and that ventilation would have to be started. The extent of her paralysis, the difficulty breathing, the required and likely painful rehabilitation and the little to no guarantee that all of that would have to be repeated made the surgeon's alternative to surgery seem the least painful and most humane. Roxy went to sleep very quietly in Mommy's arms at 3:10 this afternoon.

I will miss her a lot, and I am really glad that I still have my friend Tyrone.

Charlie :(