My dog Reggie died unexpectedly on Sunday.
He had seizures off and on for the last couple months and I'm not one of those people who can drop $6,000,000 on CT Scans and other medical procedures for a dog I rescued from a shelter.
That being said, I still loved Reggie and the feeling of security he brought to our family.
Sunday we found him having a seizure in the back yard. It was obvious it had been going on for some time. The grass was worn down where he was laying and there were other "signs" that this had been going on for a while.
Sunday mornings aren't the best time to get rushed animal care. I couldn't transport him myself due to his size (90lbs) and he was thrashing around so we couldn't lift him without getting hurt ourselves.
We called Animal Control, left a voicemail and they called back about 30 minutes later while my dog lay convulsing in the yard suffering.
From the time we saw him in a seizure to the time he arrived at the Humane Society he had been seizing for 3 hours. That doesn't include the hours before we noticed it was happening.
Back in the day you could shoot your dog and put it out of it's misery "O'l Yeller style" but had I done that, I would have been arrested and fined. It would have been considered "inhumane" to kill him with a gun however I can let him suffer for 3 hours in front of my children and pay $110 to have the Humane Society kill him with a needle instead.
I just find it all very ironic.