Hailey was certainly not the best looking dog. We have no idea what type of dog she actually was. She was black with brown on her face and could catch a bird like no ones business so we knew she was some type of hunting dog. She also always had really long claws that she would never let us trim. Hailey was a 4 years old when she came to live with us.
Hailey became our baby. She was house trained and sweet natured. She loved her food and loved to be where ever I was.
Our first home was in a bad part of town, but our house was cute, our lawn was huge and we had the awesome experience of having neighbors with chickens…and no coop. But one too many chickens made it into our yard and when they didn’t return, thanks to Hailey, the neighbors finally got a coop.
Hailey took to Lily right away. She was very protective of Lily and would be very cautious of all the people who came into our home to work with her. She would sit right there, right next to the therapist and Lily and it was as if she was saying “I dare you to make one wrong move with her”.
We have had other dogs along side of Hailey, but they never worked out. We had a pug that had to go to pug rescue when we couldn’t get him to stop peeing on any and everything, especially where Lily was lying. Andrew brought home a puppy he found on a construction site that was eating us out of a home so I found a good family for him. We had the insane puggle whom was a huge pain in the butt, but we did love her. Lily’s nurse kept letting her out when Lily’s bus came and she’d run out. I kept saying please don’t let her out and she just couldn’t be firm with her and she ran out every day. One day I came home and I asked where she was, she said she ran out. When I realized it had been a while I went looking for her and couldn’t find her. We did what we could to find her and she was gone. It was very frustrating and sad to have lost her and I will microchip any dog we get absolutely from now on, no question about it. It is so hard to find that right fit with your family and Hailey was that fit. There was no forcing with her. She just fit.
Hailey was a healthy dog who rarely needed to be seen by the vet, but by the time she hit about 10 (we never knew her birthday) she started showing signs of arthritis. We had a big work up on her and she was full of it. She started pain meds and anti inflammatory’s, she seemed like a different dog medicated. I still remember so clearly taking her up to Greer this past Thanksgiving. She seemed 5 years younger up there. She was so happy. She was so lively. I will cherish those memories. We had planned on taking her with us this July, but that won’t be happening.
A couple months ago Lily’s music therapist came over and Hailey went crazy, that was Hailey’s one flaw, she would bark and run around whenever someone came over, and with Lily we have people in our home almost daily. Well this time she was running and then just fell over. She got up and fell over again. She then got up and looked really dizzy. I thought it was a seizure. And knowing seizures I didn’t want her to be medicated if they were infrequent. Unfortunately it started happening once a week. Although I put one and one together with the excitement and then passing out, I still thought they were seizures. Seizures really aren’t that damaging and I wish that were all those episodes were. It was like this for a month or so, she’d have these episodes once a week, then all of a sudden they were daily and then she’d loose her bladder. And this was so not Hailey. She was coughing a lot and had no energy. I looked up online her symptoms and found that it was heart failure most likely and I knew I needed to take her to the vet, I was scared to. She went downhill and fast and she would just lie on the floor sprawled out and would breath heavy. It got to the point where I would hold my breath whenever someone came over because I knew she would faint. On Thursday I watched her see the pool guy, let two barks out and she just fell over. It was that point I knew I had to take her in. I just sat with her and hugged her and cried. I just knew I wouldn’t bring her home with me. I made her appointment for Friday and asked Andrew to pick up Lily from school, I dropped Andi off at my bestie Kim’s and I took Oliver with me. I put the leash on Hailey and walked her to the car. She couldn’t make it to the car, it was too much and when I went to put her in the car she passed out. She peed all over herself and my neighbor was outside at the time. He laughed at first, he thought she didn’t want to get in the car, but when he realized what happened he apologized and offered to help. We rinsed her off and he picked her up and put her in my car. She used to fight anyone who even touched her back because of her arthritis, but she didn’t say a thing.
I walked her in and she got on the scale and she had lost 6 lbs in 5 months. And remember, this dog loved food. I knew she was loosing weight, even Andi said “mom, Hailey is shrinking” I just didn’t realize she had lost that much.
I told the vet her symptoms; she listened to her and basically said if we did everything they could do it would only buy a little time, if we were lucky. She said she is suffering and strongly recommended us put her down. I was a blubbering mess from then on. She said we could take her home for the weekend and bring her back. I couldn’t do that though. I knew she couldn’t handle the trip back and forth again and I don’t think I could watch her suffer all weekend and I couldn’t look at her knowing what was around the corner. I said we can just do it now. They gave me some time with her and I told her that she was the best dog I had ever known and I loved her and would miss her immensely. They came back and asked if I wanted to be with her and I said yes. I called Andrew and he said “no not now” and I said “it has to be now”. The vet and tech were very sweet and I just looked her in the eye and I rubbed her head over and over until she fell asleep and then she peacefully passed. It was peaceful. It was time for her to go, but it was awful. One of the other techs had Oliver in the other room so I could be with Hailey and I was thankful for that. I sent Andrew a text and I wrote “she’s gone” but my phone came up with “home” when I wrote “gone” and I thought, well that is fitting. She is finally at home. She is at peace. She can breathe.
Coming home has really been the biggest struggle for me. Andrew and I hugged and cried. We talked about it and he was as upset as I was. He went to get Andi from Kim’s and talked with her about it. I was home with Lily and talked to her. I looked around the house and every place I looked, I thought of her. Her corner in the living room. Her food dish. The sliding glass door she went thru to go outside. Right now I write this from my bed and she should be right by my side of the bed at my feet. She should be here and she isn’t. I sit her and breathe like a baby who can’t catch her breath after crying. The tears won’t stop. My nose is running. I’ve been like this since yesterday at 2pm. I still can’t talk about it. I am absolutely devastated and I just want to throw up. I want our dog back and I just can’t help but think that if I am this devastated over our dog, how can a person survive the loss of their child?
I know this is incredibly long and sad and I don’t care if anyone reads this or the entire world reads it. I just had to write about our dog, our baby before our babies, Hailey. She didn’t have the personality of Marley. She wasn’t mischievous. She was mellow. She was kind hearted. She was loyal. She was everything a dog owner could ask for and I don’t know if we will ever be that lucky again. We’ve had other dogs come and go, but none has ever been like Hailey, I doubt none will ever be like her again.
We love you Hailey. You were the best dog ever and you gave our family a great 7 years and I am thankful to your first family for giving you to us. We enjoyed every bit of you.
