Little Cocoa

[BettaMomma]

My sister now has 4 kids ranging in age from less than a year to 10 years old.
They found little Cocoa (a golden chocolate poodle - cute as a button) several years back when she only had two kids. He was neglected, cold and dirty and he followed them home from the park. My sister (who is just like me in the animal sense) took him in, trimmed his hair and gave him a bath. They quickly noticed something was wrong with him. They rushed him to the vet and he had kidney stones and needed immediate surgery. My sister doesn't have much money at all so she scrounged, called around and got money from us family members and never told her hubby about the surgery. Well, little Cocoa came back home to live several more years with them.

Incredibly ironically, my sister had a bad bout with kidney stones herself last week, and wound up in the hospital. While she was away, my mom and grandma went to stay with the kids so her hubby could continue to work during the days and be home when the kids got home from school, etc. etc.. While my sister was in the hospital, I don't know if Cocoa's age got to him, or he missed my sister, or what - but he started pottying all over the house. As soon as my sister got home, my mom and grandma got all over her case and within an hour, they were on their way to the vet to have little Cocoa put to sleep. He's now buried out at her in-law's on the farm under the tree where the kids and he used to love to play.

I'm a little bit upset with my mom and grandma as is my sister. They just got fed up with having to clean up the mess he was making and decided to take the easy route out. Granted, it may have just been time - he might have been getting old and not able to control things anymore, but to give my sister who was just stepping in the door the third degree when she was in that condition and only a few minutes to decide, say goodbye and to take him over there. The kids didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to him.

 

[RandomWiktor]

That's horrible. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss; your mom and grandma should be throttled for putting down a dog over incontinence, and honestly, shame on the vet who did it as well. Veterinarians aren't supposed to put an animal down just because the owner wants it and the animal is an inconvenience. That really doesn't hold up their code of ethics one iota.

 

[BettaMomma]

I am very upset with them and I haven't spoken to either of them about it yet.

I'm sure my grandma told the vet a story about how this dog was peeing EVERYWHERE in the house and it just had overall problems. The vet probably thought he/she was doing the right thing. They live in a teeny teeny town, with about 1500 population so the vet isn't exactly top notch. He works in a clinic that's attached to his house.

The poor little dog was very skinny and limped on one of his legs, but that was just age. You should have seen him when he went outside and played with the kids. He acted like a puppy again. The poor little guy. I'm sure he was wondering what he had done as he was dying.

Every time I think about it, it just makes me want to cry.

My sister is pretty devistated.

 

[pnyklr3]

That's so sad! I would have at least taken a few weeks to see if it got any better! That seemed very fast; I assume your sister didn't have the energy to fight about it. Some people see Cocoa as a DOG, but I'm sure she was a valued member of the family.

I know Random may object... But my mom just had a cat put down because of incontinence. They tried to train the cat (previously an outside stray) for 4 years to use a litter box, but the cat insisted on going every where else. This included clothes, bath tubs, and evern right outside the litter box (it was cleaned daily, so that isn't the issue). She considered putting the cat up for adoption, but assumed that another owner would be less tolerant 9not trying for 4 years). A farm family was out of the question, as she was declawed in the front. So, the vet put her down.....he had tried to think of other ways around it, but couldn't think of anything else that wouldn't end the same way.

 

[Haiku]

That is horrible . I can't imagine having put my RB collies down when they started getting older and having accidents. I eventually set Willie up to sleep in a confined area with plastic underneath his bed for when he had accidents. There are also medications for incontinence and even doggie 'diaper' type products. My guess is the stones were acting up and/or he had a severe UTI and he just couldn't help himself. His fluid intake should have been limited if he was peeing that badly and perhaps confined him to a certain area until your poor sister could get back to deal with it. That is just awful. I feel badly for your sister too, who must be devastated.

RIP little Cocoa . Very sad

 

[RandomWiktor]

I know Random may object...  But my mom just had a cat put down because of incontinence. They tried to train the cat (previously an outside stray) for 4 years to use a litter box, but the cat insisted on going every where else. This included clothes, bath tubs, and evern right outside the litter box (it was cleaned daily, so that isn't the issue). She considered putting the cat up for adoption, but assumed that another owner would be less tolerant 9not trying for 4 years). A farm family was out of the question, as she was declawed in the front. So, the vet put her down.....he had tried to think of other ways around it, but couldn't think of anything else that wouldn't end the same way.

Well, clearly your situation differs from this person's. Your cat sounds like it had a problem adjusting to living indoors, or may have even been territorially spraying. Unless you could find a no-kill cat sanctuary, you couldn't do much else. After all, if you can't keep it in your home, and it is a declawed cat so it can't be outdoors, your only other option would be, what, building an outdoor cat enclosure? Which not everyone can afford. So in that case, this was more like an unadoptable, unhouseable animal, and euthanasia was the only option if you couldn't find a home that would take it.

I'm bothered by what happened to this dog because the dog could have just had a urinary tract infection from stress, and the vet put it down without even making sure it didn't have some simple, curable health problem. That really wasn't the right thing to do, though as BettaMomma said, he was probably mislead. Plus, incontinence in dogs is a bit easier to deal with than in cats as they make "doggie diapers" and products of the like, and you can keep dogs outside in a fenced yard for a good part of the day, unlike cats who would rip the diaper off, scale the fence, and probably get hit by a car.

Either way, goodbye Cocoa I guess on the up side, the little dog had a good life up until this happened, and had people like Bettamomma, its owner, and the family who love it. Your poor sister. I bet her kids are desvastated, too

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, I talked to my sister tonight.
She said that the only place that Cocoa had pottied was on a couple of rugs. The poor guy even knew he was doing something wrong, and couldn't help it - so he was at least trying to go on the rugs rather than on the actual carpet. My grandma made the statement that he was "peeing all over the house".

Our best guess is as you said - he was stressedt that my sister was gone and all these odd people were invading the house, and his stones were acting up or his age was just starting to sneak up on him. I still haven't talked to my Grandma or Mom yet. I am guessing this was all my Grandma's work. She's always trying so hard to do the right thing, but this time she went way overboard. My sister said that she's not going to speak to her for quite some time. And you're correct - my sister just didn't have the strength to fight about it.

We decided that he had a great life with them - who knows what would have happened to the little guy if they hadn't decided to go to the park that day. There were always kids yanking on his tail, his ears, etc. but he was always happy with his tongue hanging out with that little doggie smile on his face. During the last year or so, he had gone almost deaf but they had devised a sort of "pound on the floor" type of system for him and it just became sort of a way of life at their house.

As for the kids, they're pretty devistated. They do have another dog but he's an outside hunting dog that lives in a pretty decent sized outdoor kennel year round, so he's not the cuddly little kid-friendly type that little Cocoa was.

Aaah well, what's done is done. I'm still not sure what I'm going to say to my Grandma. She probably doesn't even think that she has done anything wrong, and maybe doesn't really realize it. EVEN if it came to the fact that he WAS peeing everywhere and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it, they should have backed the heck off and let my sister have a few days or a week or two for everyone to say their goodbyes.

OOoOoogh.

 

[mm_simb]

That's so sad . Your mom and grandmother shouldn't have done that as this was your sister's dog. As was mentioned before he was probably just sad because your sister was not there.

pnyklr3: That cat was a different story. The cat was declawed and could not be an outdoor cat so nothing could've been done unless it wasn't fixed. But eitherway it probably wouldn't have fixed it.

I have a cat that my parents were thinking of getting rid of and they've threatened to "throw" it out at times but they know what will happen if they do that. The cat (Simba) is really aggressive at times (was more when he was little) and we can't do much around him. It's gotten better but he still hurts us at times. He also has a really rough time at the vet. I feel sorry for his vet though. He'll bite ANYONE...even strangers so he can't go out of my room when visitors come and they can't come in to see him. But I nursed him since he was 2 weeks old so he's my baby (he's 2 now) and I would never get rid of him no matter what.

 

[Bloo]

That's such a same and sad that so many people do that to their old friends just because they cannot be bothered to look after it any more. My old Dobermann was incontinent for probably about the last 2 years of her life and took little pills to help (though it did not help a great deal) and eventually died peacefully in her sleep at the grand old age of 12 (this is pretty ancient for such a large breed). Granted it might have been Coco's time and perhaps the best thing, it doesn't sound like it was the best way

 

[RandomWiktor]

I have a cat that my parents were thinking of getting rid of and they've threatened to "throw" it out at times but they know what will happen if they do that. The cat (Simba) is really aggressive at times (was more when he was little) and we can't do much around him. It's gotten better but he still hurts us at times. He also has a really rough time at the vet. I feel sorry for his vet though. He'll bite ANYONE...even strangers so he can't go out of my room when visitors come and they can't come in to see him. But I nursed him since he was 2 weeks old so he's my baby (he's 2 now) and I would never get rid of him no matter what.

That's very interesting. I'm beginning to get the impression that animals, like people, can most definately be mentally ill, and one way this manifests itself is completely unexplained, unwarranted, and consistent agression. It seems to differ from regular agression, that you can pin to a cause, and doesn't seem to discriminate against family or strangers. There is a cat at ARF who will very literally chase down and attack whoever walks into the room. He needs to be caged all the time, and they're thinking of just euthanizing him as he put stitches in a few people - that how bad he is. He was never abused, he's lived there since he was a kitten, but when he was about 4 months old - so right from the get go, really - he started to display this terrible agression. Makes me think he was mixed up from birth, a "bad seed" if you will. It wouldn't shock me if there isn't a mental illness to it, but since that field hasn't been studied much in dogs and cats, there's no real solid evidence to back it. Kindof makes me wish I took animal behavior for my major, because I'd love to study things like that.

 

[eudielynn]

This breaks my heart. Poor little Cocoa. I have always felt like when I took in a new pet, that it was a lifetime committment, almost like having kids. But I know other people do not feel that way. I would be furious if someone else even tried to tell me what to do with one of my animals, and I don't blame you and your sister for both being very upset with them. I had a little silky terrier that would pee when he got nervous or excited. It wasn't anything he could help and wasn't even a physical problem. He was just hyper and nervous. He even looked embarrassed afterwards, but we just got used to not picking him up when he was excited and keeping a rag and bucket handy. I had far worse messes with the kids than I ever did with him. But at least he did have someone who loved him and cared for him in his later years. Yeah, maybe it was his time, but your sister should have been allowed to make that decision when she was up to it.

 

[BettaMomma]

I agree. I'm so distraught about this whole thing, and I can't imagine how it is for my sister. She said she walked by and looked down at his little bed by the couch last night and had a really hard time.

I talked to my grandma this morning - she called me about another problem - her poor little goldfish in a 5 gallon tank. UUGH. I gave her the tank because I wanted her to move the poor guy from his little 2.5G tank to something bigger and it was all I could do. Now the motor has burned out in the filter and she wants to wait a few WEEKS until i can go and visit and help her get a new one.

I was really short with her - and I think she knew why, even though we never discussed Cocoa at all.

There will be words about this in our family. I have not gone off the handle about it yet because after all, this is my family - not some manager at WalMart who I don't really care if I offend and never have to face again.

i HATE IT!