RIP Simon!

So- as the title indicates- we had to put our beloved Simon to sleep late this afternoon.

as some you know may know- simon was diagnosed with bone cancer back in late january. fortunately the cancer had not spread past his leg so the doctors were able to amputate the leg with the primary aim of alleviating any major pain from the cancer growth and the secondary hope of the cancer not spreading/matasticizing. There has always been a chance that there were some cells that spread and hence a possibility of growth elsewhere.

since the amputation he has not been as active as before- mainly on wood floors and going up and down stairs- otherwise- he was still pretty active and happy. He had fun with xavier and with us.

last week we began to notice a drastic change in simon's behavior. much more reluctance to move around and a decreased interest in eating/drinking. we started giving him some anti-inflmatory medicines in hopes to help with the pain. Monday morning he was yelping to go outside but not wanting to move.

we were suspecting the worse and made an appt. with the vet that morning- thinking this may be the day we have to put him to sleep. We all said our goodbyes and ross and I took him to the vet's office.

the vet looked him over and reported that his back leg was very stiff- it being obvious he is in a lot of pain. she gave us some more pain meds and told us to call her back tomorrow.

Last nite Ross and I were not seeing much change in Simon- he wasn't interested in water or much food and he was having trouble standing to even go to the bathroom- he simply can't support his weight on his back leg. He pees on himself as a result- something I'm sure he is not happy with. He just wants to sit down as quickly as possible. It is obvious he is in a lot of pain. Ross and I decided if we did not see a drastic improvement by this morning (tuesday) we were going to go ahead and have him put to sleep today.

i spoke with the vet this morning and gave her the update. She agreed with us that simon's comfort and quality of life were the most important things to consider and that it seems like this is the best decision for simon.

We put Simon to sleep late this afternoon. As God does have impecable timing and a sense of humor- he went peacefully to sleep during a loud and violent thunderstorm outside. He hated thunderstorms!

He had a loving, happy last day. We went to Burger King and got him 5 cheeseburgers this afternoon- which he seemed to enjoy. We groomed him all pretty and I took a lot of pictures. He had 4 pieces of cheese to eat at the vets office. He was a full, happy dog!

needless to say-we are deeply sad and grieving. Simon was our last remnant from our time together in Illinois- an era in our lives has ended. we are grateful for the 10 years we've had with simon and that we now have xavier to keep us company. there are a lot of things I will miss about simon...his head butts to get us to pet him, his glomming all over us, the way he ran circles around our backyard in IL to the point where we had to re-seed the yard twice, the way he would bark when you would say, "daddy!", his ability to catch treats/snowballs/balls in midair- sometimes jumping up to 2 feet!

xixi is aware simon was not well and needed to go to heaven in order to not be so sick as best as a 4 year old can comprehend. We expect a lot of question in the days to come as she processes all of this.

RIP Bubby! You were deeply loved!
Simon- 4.15.97-6.10.08