The Guilt

It only took us a few WEEKS to realize that the discoloration of his nose had gotten out of control. There were other signs, too. He was moodier than usual, and he seemed to be whining alot. For those of you who have westies, whining comes with the territory. They will not be ignored. He was whining more than normal, but we just attributed it to the lack of attention.

Then, suddenly, it got worse over-night. When that happened, we were congnizant of the little attention we had been paying him. It makes me sad, and I feel a little guilty, to think about it. To think of all the life we have shared together, and now that he's reaching his declining years, I barely have any time for him. That's hardly fair to him, or me either, although I was involved in all the decisions that led to our busyness.

Three years ago, just after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Jessica and I set out on a 5 week RV vacation across the country. We wanted to see what we could while still young and kid-free, and chose the RV style so we could take our dogs with us. We had two westies, Murphy and his sidekick Molly (also a westie). She was younger and wilder, but less hardy. To our IMMENSE surprise, she contracted leptospyrosis and died on the trip. We were devastated, but pushed on and completed our trip to Yellowstone / Grand Tetons with heavy hearts. Despite his sadness, Murphy had some great moments, like jumping and splashing in ice-cold mountain streams while hiking.

After having been such an integral part of our life, it is difficult to reconcile the new lifestyle (children) that gives him so much less attention.

On a medical update, the steroids he was on wreaked havoc on his kidneys, so we had to stop. This means that the facial disfiguration has gotten worse. His ears got infected, so he's on antibiotics. I'll let Jess give the rest of the medical update, and some pictures.