My Mowgli ....

So we came home on Sunday from a great trip to visit some friends and meet their new baby to find Mowgli shaking and whimpering in pain. I thought her arthritis must have flared up again so I started her back on Rimadyl. I gave that a few doses of time to see if it would help and it didn't do much. So off to the vet we went this morning. I was totally prepared for him to tell me that she was full of tumors. I know that sounds very negative but Brett thought the same thing. Turns out the vet does not think it's tumors but it's more of her arthritis progressing into her spine (disc degeneration) which is causing pinched nerves and muscle spasms. He sent us home with three different meds to get her comfortable and then we will gradually pull back to see which one is helping the most. Giving her six pills a day is going to be quite a challenge but she took the first set this morning without too much of a struggle ... surprisingly enough. Maybe she knew it would help. She's laying next to me now snoring away which is a really good sign that she's comfortable. She hasn't been sleeping very soundly lately. She always snores but she hasn't been snoring lately. She's also had some trouble walking which I attributed to her arthritis but she's got more fatty deposits on her as well which we thought may be tumors.

We all know when we adopt a pet that they will not be around forever but it's still so hard when they leave us. Mowgli will be 11 next month so she's definitely no spring chicken anymore. I picked her out when she was four weeks old and I took her home when she was eight weeks old. She and I have been through a lot together. We made it through college (i'm sure she's glad that's over), we moved halfway across the country all by ourselves, we've gone on hundreds of road trips ... even drove between Houston and Gainesville a few times by ourselves. She's been the one constant thing in my life for 11 years now. She's been a huge comfort to me, she's protected me and loved me, she's licked my tears ... and she's always happy to see me no matter what. I hope and pray that I have several more years with her but I also don't want her to live in pain. Maybe this is the beginning of the end ... and maybe it's not. I've cried a lot over the past few days just thinking about it ... almost in disbelief at times. I've dealt with so much over the past three months and there are some other things I'm dealing with as well that I'll share when the time is right .... so please God, don't take away my Mo-Mo just yet.