The Hardest Thing We Have Ever Had To Do!

This Tuesday was not a good day in the Mayfield home. Tuesday morning Cheyenne came over to watch the kids because Melissa had another appointment in the middle of the day. Melissa was meeting with a surgeon to see about taking out her gallbladder. She has had problems with it over the past two years and she has been in a lot of pain lately. I opted to have Cheyenne bring Kingston over and keep the kids at home so Melissa could rest until her appointment. (Well rest as much as she could with her own twins still at home!)

When I came home at lunch Cheyenne said that Bruce our Boston terrier wouldn't come inside the house. I went out side to check on him and had to carry him back in the house. Bruce's problems started about a month ago when he started yelping in pain. He was leaning to the right and it was obvious that something was wrong with him. I took him to the vet on Sept 4th for the first visit and they diagnosed it as two ear infections with bacteria and yeast in both ears. That explained his pain and the problems standing his equilibrium was off.

Within two days I was back at the vet because he was getting worse. He was now vomiting and shaking. They decided that he needed nausea medicine because the pain pills were making him throw up all his medicines. We also had x rays done of his neck because they thought he had a slipped disk or something that was also affecting his legs. He would stand and his front feet would cross and slide until they gave out from under him. It was simply not good.

Throughout the last month he was on antibiotics, pain pills, nausea medicine, anti-inflammatories, and steroids. We took him to two different vets and had him tested for most everything they could test for. We didn't want to give up on him until we knew we had done everything possible to help him. On Tuesday evening I took Bruce to the vet one last time to see what else we could do. By this time he was not doing good at all. He couldn't stand up and he was in so much pain. The vet said it was obviously something neurological and to do anything further would mean taking him to a neurologist. Yes they have specialist for animals too. The vet said he would have to have many test to figure out what exactly was wrong and even if money was not an option his chances for recovery were slim. They think it was either cancer, a stroke, or meningitis but regardless there wasn't much more we could do for our baby Bruce.

I took Bruce home to tell Dallas the horrible news. We got Bruce as Dallas' birthday present when we lived in Mansfield so many years ago. Bruce was our first little bubba and we have truly lost a family member. We decided we could no longer allow him to live in such pain and we knew we had to let him go. We put Bruce to sleep on Tuesday night and it was the hardest thing we have ever had to do. Today is one of the first days I can even talk about it without getting sick to my stomach. Our house has not been the same and probably never will be. Zoe and Brianna are just now starting to understand he isn't coming back home. In the weeks to come I imagine it will get easier but so far I am so deeply sad words can't even explain it...

Our first three children.

Bruce and Zoe were play buddies.

He loved to bark and hear himself talk.


He liked his sleep too!


When we had the carpets cleaned he just followed the furniture.

Rest in Peace Bubba Bruce. You were a great dog!