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Doreena
January 20, 2013

Chowder

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Created for the January "Scrap Your Pet" challenge.

The story of our kitten Chowder and his short tragic life.

Warning journaling is descriptive and sad.
***
Journaling:
"June 2012
We adopted Chowder from the pound when he was just 2 months old.
Unfortunately he was only in our lives for 1 week. During that week he spent the majority of the time at the vet's.
The pound requires you to neuter/spay your adopted animal. In order to make sure this happens, you are not allowed to take your pet home. The pound delivers your pet to a nearby vet's office for the procedure. When the procedure has been completed you pick your pet up from the office.
When Chowder was delivered to the vet they discovered he was ill with what they thought was a respiratory infection. We had the option of returning him to the pound or keeping him and moving forward with treatment. Madison was already so in love with Chowder that returning him was not an option! Chowder was sent home with us with some medication. That night he seemed okay. He explored the house and followed my daughter around and cuddled with her when we settled down for the evening (see pictures). But then things went downhill. Poor Chowder could not keep his medicine down and he was not eating or drinking. After a day and a half of this I took back to the vet. In that short time he had become very dehydrated and had lost half his body weight; he was already very tiny prior to that. This worried the vet and Chowder was kept overnight for observation. When I called they next day to check on him the vet and staff were all hopeful but they requested to keep him a bit longer. Every day I would call and everyday there was still hope of him getting better . Finally on the last day of the week I was asked to come in. Since they were not getting very far with the respiratory treatments and were struggling to find out what was wrong with him, the vet ran a Parvo test just to rule it out. If you don't know what Parvo is, it is a serious illness that is generally associated with dogs. The vet was surprised when it came back positive! I was told they could try to fight it but as tiny and young as Chowder was that he would most likely not make it. Knowing the Parvo was destroying his organs and causing him pain I made the difficult but what I believed to be the only humane decision to have him “put to sleep”. Before this was done I was allowed to spend some time with him. It was hard for me to see him so weak and in pain. He had wires hooked up to him and he was bleeding in places he shouldn't be because of his organs breaking down. I cried as I petted him, I told him that I, we, loved him and that we were sorry he had to spend his short life like he did. I also told him that I hoped that the time he actually spent with us was time he enjoyed; I hoped that we had made him happy. Just then he weakly reached his little paw out to me and touched my hand as if answering me. I was already crying but when he did that I totally lost it! I continued to pet him a little more and then I finally gave him one last stroke and kiss and told him “goodbye”. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
In the short time he was with us he was very loved.
I am so glad I was able to get a couple of pictures of him before he died.
He will forever be in our hearts."

I cried writing the journaling.


The background paper was perfect for this layout as it was already beautifully decorated and had a large space for my journaling. I just added some doodling and a few embellishments: flower, wood hearts, and eyelets to make it complete.


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