Goodbye, Marley

By mid-week Marley was doing much better. He was acting like he normally does. On Friday, he took a turn for the worse. He vomited and started the heavy panting and breathing again. It continued into this morning, so I dropped him off at the vet. After she examined Marley, the vet called to say that the pain was coming from his abdomen. It was unlikely that it was from the Prednisone since we had already started decreasing it. She felt that Marley either had pancreatitis or gastroenteritis. Either way, Marley needed an IV and needed to be hospitalized. Since there wasn't 24-hour care available at the vet's office, we were going to have to transport Marley to the emergency animal hospital where he would stay until Monday. At that point, we could take him back to our vet if he hadn't improved.

George and I decided that we couldn't put Marley through all of that and that it was time to let him go. We went back to the vet's office and were allowed some time with Marley. He was so excited to see us! His tail was wagging, but he continued the heavy panting and shaking! George and I talked soothingly to him, petted him, cried, and told him goodbye. We held Marley as the vet injected him and told him how much we loved him. It was somewhat of a relief to see Marley resting so comfortably after that. We made arrangements to have him cremated. His ashes will be put in a box. We'll be able to put him next to the boxes with Lucky and Muffy. I'm sure the three of them are happy to see each other again and be together in doggy heaven!

A little history about Marley: Christina found him in Rolla when she attended the University there. I think that was in 1993 or '94. She bathed him and gave him flea treatment because he was so unkept. She named him Marley after the singer Bob Marley. Marley stayed in Christina's dorm room for a few days until she could bring him home. Our vet estimated that Marley was probably about one and a half years old. He lived with us until Christina moved to Florida in 1995. In December 1997, Marley and Christina moved back in with us. We've had him ever since then. Marley has been a big part of our lives for a long time. We are going to miss him a lot!!!!

I'll try to scan some pictures of Marley and post them soon so that you can see him.