This is usually what people want to talk about......and sadly it's what I can't talk about at all. We found out in May of 2001 that Lieber had bone cancer in her front leg, it's very common in large breed dogs...I had no idea. We immediately blocked off all the stairs in the house and put a mattress on the floor in the living room. We didn't want her to stress her leg going up and down stairs nor did we want her to feel punished having to stay the night downstairs alone since she had always slept with us. So during the week I slept with her and on the weekends Brian slept down here. Ian must of took a roll of pictures of her the weekend we found out.
Lieber use to follow me around the whole day......upstairs, downstairs, dishes, outside to get the mail, if I just ran upstairs for something for one minute she would be right behind me, when I came out of the shower she was right there. The vet always asked me how we kept her weight so good, and I would say if you went up and down the stairs 100 times a day you would look pretty good too. We wanted the summer with her. It's really what we hoped for....the vet couldn't give us a time frame...weeks to months but not to the New Year is what he told us. She went on prednizone and we also put her on some Chinese herbals for pain and swelling. I decreased her dog food and would make her hamburger, brown rice and carrots. Cancer feeds off carbohydrates and not proteins.
She was very much herself the whole summer just Lieber with a very bad limp. We tried to keep her from running, we didn't want her to break her leg where her bones were brittle seeing we would have to put her down if she did. She didn't like always being left home for the outings but soon got use to it. She would still grab a stuffed animal out of her basket and drop it in front of Montana or one of us to play. She ate great and she looked great...it was hard to believe she was sick. I asked everyone I knew not to talk about it with me.......I just couldn't imagine her not being a part of our life.
In October she started to slow down a bit. We had company at the house to the 10th and she was doing great.....Lieber loved company here. The week after her appetite was decreasing. I could usually hide her pills in something but she was starting to pick them out. She was up to about 9 or 10 of the herbal pills a day to feel good....so it was really getting hard to find a way she would eat them. Her tummy started to swell, it would be like overnight you would see her tummy expand. She couldn't go outside without resting a little bit. She still looked great though. It started to be a good day/bad day sort of thing.
The last week of October she started to fail fast. I was always waiting for her to have accidents in the house...but still when she was really having trouble walking she would go outside. I put throw rugs all along the hardwood floors for a path since she couldn't walk on them at all. It must of put too much pressure on her leg. Monday the 29th it seemed her tummy just swelled some more. She was walking slow but still in good spirts she spent a couple hours with me raking leaves in the backyard. I took her picture.
On Tuesday morning I made the decision that she would have to be put down on the weekend. We just loved her too much for her to be in any pain. I was in the kitchen trying to give her her meds, and a close friend of mine Rose came walking up the walk. I hadn't seen Rose all summer (she had a rough summer)...since we just found out Lieber had cancer. I met Rose through Lieber when we first moved here and there were no houses behind us, I use to run Lieber behind there and Rose would always be there with Izzy & Elliot...it was a sign Rose came on this day. As soon as she came through the door I started crying. Lieber's tail wagged she was so happy to see her.....it was the first time her tail wagged that day. We just sat on the floor with Lieber petting her and talking about her.
Rose lost a dog to cancer also, but her dog one day woke up in excruciating pain and said she would never want that for another dog. She thought Lieber was heading for that soon. She had even offered to take Lieber for us and bury her on her land if we didn't feel up to it. When she left, I called Brian and asked him to make the appointment for Thursday.....Wednesday was Halloween.
After trick-or-treating, close to bedtime we told the boys. Ian and Lieber grew up together I knew it would be really hard on him...and it was. We all slept down here with Lieber that night. None of us wanting to fall asleep knowing what the next day would bring...but even with our protest Thursday came anyway.
Her tummy swelled again overnight......it was just huge, almost comical if it didn't mean she was dying. We spent the whole day here with her. She didn't eat at all that morning....but she did go out. She never did make messes in the house. She would still follow us around the house. So I spent the day in the living room, either at the puter or laying next to her reading. We all would play games in here or just all sat with books in our hands.....dreading 5:00. Montana even came up to her at one point during the day and licked her head, he hadn't done that in ages. As red eyed as we were, we took our pictures...sounds morbid but we wanted that last day preserved with her.
The time did come to take her. Poor Brian. I still don't know how he did it We said our goodbyes in the living room. We tried to get her into the car, but she wouldn't get up. We asked her if she wanted treats, car rides, all her favorites and she wouldn't budge. Brian ended up carrying her to the van. She sat in the middle seat, her head looking out the side door...we all told her we loved her again and kissed her. I shut the door to the van......and Ian, Collin and I watched Brian pull out of the garage as the three of us just stood there crying. I don't know how he did it......we were a mess.
He carried her into the vets office......he said she just laid there......the vet gave her the shot....she fell asleep.....she snored twice......and she was gone.
