She has hip dysplasia, which is not good. CCI will be releasing her from the program. We will adopt her. No question there. I have not talked to the CCI vet yet to get anything more than the diagnosis.
So, how do I feel; very sad. I'm surprised at that. But after some soul-searching and talking with Kerry, I've realized that one of the reasons I wanted to be a puppy raiser is that I thought this would guarantee that I would not have to watch another old dog die. I would just keep getting puppies and turning them over for advanced training. Somebody else would witness their demise.
Prior to CCI, I rescued Golden Retrievers who had been abandoned or given up. I took the old ones because at the time I had a very small backyard in Alameda. Emily came into my life when she was abandoned in the night box at the Fremont pound in the Bay Area. She was sweet, docile and loving. I bought a dog handicap ramp for her to get into my SUV. She couldn't jump and I couldn't lift her. I fell in love and adopted her. Kerry and I moved her to the country with us. She developed epilepsy and died about a year later. That was so hard.
When I heard the news about Harleen, I relived the night we went to see Emily after she had died at the emergency vet clinic in Roseville. She just wouldn't stop seizing no matter what the vet did.
So now Harleen is categorized as "Change of Career" or COC in CCI jargon. She's not quite sure what to do with the new freedom she has now as a pet. We need to get her spayed. Then we will face whatever needs to be done for her hips. A part of me wants another puppy sometime in the future; maybe this time I won't have to watch it die. That's the news for today.
