in memory of Cosmo

My heart goes out this morning to my dear friends Michael (aka Slick) and Judy, who suddenly and unexpectedly lost their dog Cosmo early this morning. Cosmo was a beautiful Keeshond, a very cool dog, and very fortunate to have such kind and loving parents. Godspeed, Cosmo … and you’ll find a wonderful buddy named Bandit in Keeshond heaven. Michael asked me to share this news here so our friends will know:

“Cosmo passed away at 2:22 this morning. We are not really sure what happened. I got up yesterday morning at 5:30 as usual and let Cosmo into the room to chew on his pillow. After my shower, I took Cosmo for a walk, although he’s always reluctant at this hour. He says “Daddy, it is too early.” We took our walk and I gave him his breakfast. At this point he will join Judy in bed for “Cosmo/mommy bonding time.” Everything is fine at this point. I go to work and Judy gets to work a couple of hours later … no problems. I got home from work around 3:30 and took Cosmo for a walk. At this point I noticed that he was limping a little. I just figured that he must have pulled a muscle getting on and off the bed. I went for a bike ride. Judy got home and she said that Cosmo met her at the door with tail wagging. She sat down on the floor with him for more “Cosmo/mommy bonding” time. I got home around 6:15 and we were going to meet Trz at Champs to watch hoops. We were standing in the kitchen around 6:30 when Cosmo came into the kitchen and his front legs just gave out. I picked him up and put him on the carpet and he acted like he was drunk. He had very little motor control of his legs. He did not seem to be in pain, because he was smiling the entire time. We called the vet and took him there around 7:15. The vet did several blood tests to see if there were any abnormalities. All tests came back negative. He said that it may be a problem with the brain stem. Either a tumor or internal bleeding. He gave him a cortisone shot in case it was muscle related, in hopes that it would reduce the swelling and relieve the pressure on whatever was causing the problem. He also gave him an antibiotic that works specifically on bacteria directed at the brain stem. We brought Cosmo home around 8:45. From that point on he just got worse. By 9:30 he could only lift his head and he would whine if one of us was not with him. His breathing became labored and Judy curled up on the floor beside him to spend the night. I tried to get some sleep, but it wasn’t much use. I got up around 1:00 when Judy asked me to come in. He was really having a hard time breathing, I think mostly because his tongue was swollen from lack of water, but he would not drink. We both laid on the floor until about 2:00, when I suggested that we bring him to bed with us. I think moving him put an end to his suffering. Once we got him into bed, his heart rate and breathing slowed and he passed away shortly afterwards. I buried him at sunrise under our Dogwood tree. I thought that would be appropriate.”