Personal Note: It’s Going to Be a Hard Advent - UPDATED

Tomorrow starts Advent.  As I’ve mentioned, my dog Brandi is in her last phase of life.    Let me bring you up to date since that post.  Actually let me go back a few days before that.  We brought her home from the Vet after her biopsy on Friday, November 22^nd.  She ate sparingly that day and the next, but she did eat, but the on the Sunday she didn’t want anything at all.  I thought for sure it was a signal for the end.  I even sent an email out to a few friends asking for their experience. 

But then there was a minor miracle.  When we left the Vet's office with her Friday, the vet forgot to include her pain killer medication. Remember she had a biopsy and they opened up her entire belly. The medication was on the list but we didn't have any and the instructions said only if necessary. And then Sunday night it dawned on me that she was in pain. It was just the way she was walking that tipped me off. So Monday we called the vet and he looked into it and found they had left it out and didn't get into our bag. So I got on my horse and raced down to the vet hospital (it's like forty miles away) and picked it up and got back and gave her two pills and then she started moving better and interested in eating. It was like that all week.  Actually yesterday, Friday the 29^th was the most promising in that she ate over a cup of leftover turkey in the morning and over a cup at night.

Today there was a turn.  She refused food all day long except just before we had our Vet visit in the afternoon.  Then she ate about a quarter cup of turkey.  And then at the Vet the doctor noticed her belly was distended.  It’s filling with fluid, which is a bad sign the liver is completely shutting down.  We were surprised that Brandi had not lost any weight when she got on the scale.  But it’s due to fluid retention.  I’m afraid she really doesn’t have much longer to go now.

I'm really looking forward to Advent. I need a change. Poor Brandi is dying and has only a few days, a week at the most, to live. I'm feeling all sorts of aches of love which is clearly a desire for Jesus. One day this week we will have to make the final decision, and it's really going to hurt. This Advent will be like no other. Except for my grandfather when I was young, I have never lost a loved one during the holidays, and his passing was rather sudden. May one day Christ come for the final time and bring all my loved ones back together in one embrace. Come Jesus, come.

Here's Brandi from earlier in the week resting comfortably at her favorite spot on the couch.  If you look carefully at her shaved belly, you'll see the stitches from the biopsy.

UPDATE, Sunday, Dec 1st, 9:45 PM

It came faster than we expected. The liver had shut down and she wasn't eating or urinating for 24 hours. When she finally urinated it was dark orange.  Then she threw up what water she drank. She was weak and having difficulty getting around.  It was time. This afternoon we put her down.  Brandi passed from this earth at around 3:45 PM.