Spooky 1993-2006
Spooky went to doggie heaven on May 4, 2006.
After a 20-month fight with Canine Lymphoma, Spooky was put to sleep due to an infection that had spread throughout his tail. The doctors say that the Lymphoma and the lack of circulation caused by his age and the cancer were the determining factors as to making the hardest choice of our life. Spooky had done so well with all the months of Chemotherapy treatments. He basically had spells of diarrhea that was truly the biggest problem we had from the Chemo treatments. After finding him in critical condition at a Pet-lodging center here in the area, we rushed him to the Metropolitan Vet hospital in Copley Ohio because of being nearly lifeless, breathing extremely labored and couldn’t stand, nor did he recognize us when we found him. This pet lodging facility knew of Spooky’s condition, history of treatment with lymphoma and his special needs while we went on vacation. We signed every authorization to cover him needing any medical attention whatsoever while we were gone. We never would have taken him here if it weren’t for a recommendation from one of Spooky’s doctors and the Major fact that a Vet was on staff and at the facility. This was the only reason we left Spooky there.
You have to understand that 20 months earlier, we were told of his diagnosis and that if we did nothing, Spooky would be gone in about 4 weeks. We chose every means to help Spooky continue with a quality of life as long as we could. Truly, Chemotherapy is not inexpensive, but when you love an animal as if it were your child, you would do anything you could to help him. We didn’t have tons of money, but what was money. Spooky was worth every dime we owned to try to help him stay with us as long as he could without any suffering. Over $20,000.00 later and Spooky being with us everyday, with close attention and love, we had a vacation that we had scheduled several months earlier that should we have cancelled, would have cost us $3500 out of pocket due to all the ad-ons and extensions. So we decided to go on this vacation as long as Spooky was in a place that was like our home and taken well care of, and only because a doctor was on staff and at the facility.
Our mistake and probably was the beginning of the end of Spooky’s life. People to this day say we did what we thought was right and not to blame ourselves. In our hearts and we will always feel the pain of making the wrong decision when it came to caring for Spooky, vs. going on vacation. Vacations can be taken anytime, Spooky would only be with us probably a short time now that the Lymphoma had come back out of remission and he had no other drugs to fight the cancer.
I had researched and sent for supplements from Hawaii that was to help fight Lymphoma and increase the resistance to Spooky’s immune system. Spooky was on these supplements for nearly a week, when all of a sudden, he became very energized and acted like a puppy again. He would play in my office and we would wrestle each other, of which Spooky hadn’t had this type of energy for a long time. He seemed like he was back as old Spooky. When we left him at this pet lodge, he was playing with the help, walking down the aisle of kennels greeting all the other dogs. We felt like he was going to have a better vacation then we were going to have. We even paid for a luxury suite for him and VIP treatment, including a bath and haircut just prior to us coming back. The staff knew that since Spooky was a puppy, he always loved getting baths and his hair cut. He would sit up very proud and so well behaved and enjoy his treatment fully.
When we returned from vacation, we found Spooky lifeless in his suite breathing extremely hard and incoherent. He didn’t recognize us, nor could he stand, walk, or anything else. The staff didn’t even know Spooky was in crisis. Here it was roughly an hour after they had arrived for the day, and they stated that within that first hour, Spooky went outside to the bathroom and socialized with the other dogs. One of the girls after seeing Spooky’s condition, stated we better get him to a hospital right away. We were at a lodging facility with a Vet office and hospital right there. We took roughly 42 minutes in travel to get Spooky to the hospital were they found him with a 107.1 temperature. He was in critical condition. They right away got IV’s in him and ice packs to get the temperature down. By roughly 3 to 4 hours later, his temperature had come down to 104. Still not low enough. We spent the remainder of the day at the hospital and his temperature came back down to 102.1 and would spike up to 103-104 for the rest of the day. We left him at the hospital at 8:30 pm in intensive care not knowing whether he would make it or not. Around 11pm that night we called the hospital and they told us that his temperature was down, and in guarded condition. At least the temperature had come down enough to make us feel as if he might make it now. Here after all the tests, they found that Spooky had a bacterial infection. It wasn’t whatsoever due to his cancer.
Two days later after finding Spooky, I called the lodging facility because no one ever called to see how he was doing, since they saw him leave their place near death. I left them a blistering email about what happened and how interesting, a call came in roughly 2 hours later to say they were the lodging facility and wanted to know how Spooky was doing. On the other end, there was a real happy voice showing no concern as to his health. It was like a follow-up call to touch base as a customer service call.
When we found Spooky that morning, the girls who were caring for all the dogs stated that Spooky became extremely agitated during and after his hair cut and bath. Not once did anyone check his vitals to see if a problem was happening. Again, they knew he loved baths and haircuts since a puppy. Sign number 1 of possible trouble. Next they told us that on Saturday, they went past Spooky’s suite and noticed he was shivering. We left a fan with Spooky, because since the Lymphoma was detected with Spooky, he would be more comfortable with air circulating around him and it was better for him to breath and be at ease. They removed the fan when they found him shivering and again, NO VITALS were taken to see if a problem was occurring. Sign number 2. We found out that this entire week, Spooky never had his vitals taken. Why we asked? If they had all his paperwork and knew he was a critical care patient, why wouldn’t they have at least checked his vitals? We found Spooky in critical condition at roughly 9am. The staff had come in to start their rounds at 7:30am. Since they told us Spooky was a VIP guest that he would have been taken out to go to the bathroom first off. Tell us how a dog with Lymphoma, 13 years old, goes to the bathroom on his own, visits with the other dogs and shows no signs of trouble roughly 1hour and 30 minutes before we find him nearly unconscious and with a fever of 107.1? It comes down to being lied to right to our faces.
Spooky stayed in intensive care for nearly 9 days and several times the doctors would tell us that it didn’t look good and we should think about what’s best for Spooky and his quality of life. He would not eat anything, nor drink. We spent those days hand feeding him and giving him syringes of water to get him to respond and get through this. It was the most stressful time of our lives. We finally got Spooky to start eating better on his own and drinking. This gave us all hope and the doctor’s agreed to send him home, because it was apparent Spooky was responding to us by eating and drinking where he wouldn’t with them. Also, we were force-feeding him of which they weren’t or couldn’t do.
We were able to bring Spooky home and nursed him back to health the next few days. He had made it and we know in our hearts that Spooky regained his desire to live and go on because of our love and constant care. Throughout this whole ordeal in the hospital intensive care, the staff showed us how they would wrap Spooky’s tail in a wrap that would help keep his tail clean and make it easier to care for his diarrhea spells. Wow, it took us nearly 19 months to find this out after all those mishaps and endless late night clean ups.
Well, the point to make here that can only help to teach pet owners the do’s and don’ts of critical care, is that Spooky’s tail would get wet from baths and we would not be able to change the tail wrap every time and we ended up finding sores all over his tail. When we found this, we called right away for an antibiotic and they prescribed 500 mgs of antibiotic. But at the end of the workday, we felt that if we took Spooky to the hospital, they might be able to give him a shot that would work quicker to help the infection. To our dismay, after giving Spooky an injection of morphine, they shaved his tail and found that one of the sores being about an inch from the end of his tail was dead. They now tell us that if would be bordering Malpractice to take Spooky at his age and what he has been dealing with throughout the cancer treatments, and they stated that he probably wouldn’t make it through the surgery. We were left with a horrible decision. One we knew that we had hoped we wouldn’t have to make. We prayed everyday for God to take him gently in his sleep. Spooky was such a gentle loving creature. We didn’t want and felt he was certainly worth a peaceful exit on earth. That didn’t get to be the blessing.
We chose to put Spooky to sleep and shared time enjoying his existence and his warm loving personality. He knew it was time. The sweet doctor came in after about and hour alone with Spooky with the drugs and we laid on the floor holding Spooky in our arms and saying the Lord’s prayer and the 23rd Psalm aloud. I felt Spooky slip away and as I looked at the doctor with the stethoscope close to his heart, stated he was gone and crying as hard as we were. Our beautiful beloved son was gone. No more pain, no suffering, just like we had promised him. We laid with him until the warmth of life was gone and they took excellent care of his remains until we returned the following morning to personally take him to the crematorium where we had Spooky’s ashes encased in a beautiful wooden box with one of his favorite picture poses on the front. For nearly 7 weeks since we lost Spooky, we have been transporting him to and from the office, because he loved going to work and who wouldn’t with all the love, affection and hugs he got from all who came to Today’s Touch throughout the course of his cancer treatment.
If you remember, Spooky was diagnosed with Lymphoma and given roughly 4 weeks to live if we did nothing. We are blessed and will never feel any different in our decision to spend as much money as we needed to help Spooky continue to be with us. Also, do you remember us telling you early on that if we didn’t go on the vacation, that it would have cost us $3500 out of pocket to cancel. Well, the irony of all of this was that after his 9 days in intensive care to be able to bring him home, cost us $3500 plus all the days off from work to care for him. Looking back, who would have cared about the $3500 dollar loss, knowing that his care at the lodging facility would be the beginning of the end for Spooky and we ended up spending the $3500 on critical care to save him. You add it up and if we could take back those decisions, we would have spent the best $3500 staying home with Spooky and having the greatest vacation money could buy. Who knows, Spooky might still be here.
One more thought. How would you feel if you continuously were getting a postcard from this pet lodging center to remember to think of them when the next time our dog needs boarding? Believe me, we will never forget them. Especially considering their incompetent care of our loved one and then sending us the bill without remorse. Through it all, we hold Spooky’s memories close to our hearts and thank the Lord for 13 beautiful short years with the best friend God could have ever given us. We can’t wait for the day to see him running towards us once again, continuing a friendship/bond and love that will last through eternity. We miss you Spooky!
We wish to take this opportunity to thank all our staff and customers and anyone who came into Today’s Touch and shared your love and affection for Spooky. He truly made it 20 months because of all the tender loving care and compassion everyone gave him. The cards of sympathy and feelings you all gave and are still giving were and are extremely touching and will never leave our hearts. Thanks to the best staff we have ever had in all our years in business, Spooky has a star named after him in the Orion constellation. We also want to thank the customers who contributed towards that as well as those who sent other gifts to us as their way to honor Spooky and console us during our grieving of his loss.
Spooky, if nothing else, taught us how to love because he didn’t have a mean bone in his body. We pray to have even a small percentage of his being in our soul. We learned a lot from him and will only try to become better people because of him.
If you are interested in making a donation to the "ACVIM Foundation" for further research in canine diseases, please click on the link below making a note that it is in memory of Spooky.
You may also mail a check to the foundation including in the memo area that it is in memory of Spooky from Today's Touch. Thank you in advance for your support in trying to help others bide time for a miracle.
We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the following contributors:
Jeff and Brigid DiPaoloVince and Lisa Agresti
Dr. Rance Gamblin and Staff
