Goodbye Prince, My Giant Black Great Dane

Here we go again, but it's time. Prince, my black Great Dane. He's done.  His hips are toast, he can barely walk now.Just kinda went from bad to really bad overnight.  He isn't wincing in pain but it's obvious it's time to put him down.  He's getting close to 10 years old anyway, pretty much the extent of a Great Dane's life span.  Worries me, Duke is still doing good but him and Prince are brothers, he's also almost 10..........
So, try to get that dog loaded in the car and take him to a place to get him euthanized this morning.  Gag, just what I wanted to do on a Saturday.  I've got a heaping huge list of things I need to get done and I guess this one was sorta on it, just not something I really wanted to face I guess. I will not get 3 dogs again. In fact, when the next one goes, I will probably just have 1.

AC went out on my car so I have to figure out what's wrong with that and get that fixed as well.  Dumping freon somewhere.  I bought a can of red dye to pump into it yesterday, going to do that later after I get done with Prince.  It is coming out so fast that it should be pretty easy to figure out what the problem is. Unfortunately, at the rate it's coming out, I'm guessing it's the compressor.  Not a cheap thing. Yeah, just called out of curiosity to see what I am facing: $200 bucks.  Not including the other parts you have to replace or the freon.  I don't have a vacuum pump to pump out air in the lines, so have to get someone over to do that and pump the freon in.

Well, I don't know for sure it's that yet, just guessing.  Dealing with Prince takes priority today, not a pleasant prospect.
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Prince - is gone.
Took 3 people to get him from the cement sidewalk where his hips basically gave out - the smooth concrete he just couldn't navigate.  He just laid down in a heap and sat there looking at me, directly in front of the door to the entrance of the facility. This was at the Humane Society and a volunteer came out and said, well he can't stay there. No duhh, asshole, give me a freaking break.  I didn't say that to him, I just said yes I know.  Well you are going to have to put him back in your car and wait. I almost told him to go stick it, but instead, I just said no WAY is that dog going back in that car.  It took 2 people to get him in there and now? It's a done deal.

This guy was cruising for a bruising.  I had to hold myself back. He continued on with his tirade which is when I - started to come unglued.  I'm here to put my dog down, not listen to your stupid ass griping about my dog! Somebody must've heard me because the next thing I knew, we were trying to get him into the facility where he and I would be put into a small waiting room until it was our turn. This volunteer tried to pick up his entire ass end with a towel, this dude was way too small to lift a dog that size. I was about to tell him I would do it but then this huge behemoth of a man stood up, politely moved the man out of his way, picked the back end of the dog up, I got one side of the front of Prince and then the volunteer got the other and away we went into the waiting room.

I'm trying to move, so spending a lot of money on putting a dog down was not in the cards.  So waiting 2 hours wasn't pleasant but it saved me $120 over the cheapest next option. I mean I guess I could have taken him out to the desert and put a bullet in his brain and buried him there, but $60 bucks was good enough.  The vet came in and he was obviously very good with animals - and their owners that are about to see their animal pass. Well they don't let you in there at this facility, I knew that in advance.  They take him to the back, put the drug into him and that's the end.  But it was good to see him interacting with Prince at least.

Prince  knew something was going on and he got a bit fussy. I petted him and soothed him an then 3 people came in and tried to lift him up off the floor. 143 pound dog laying there like jelly, non-happening event. So they asked if I could coax him to get up and I did, he got up, they got underneath him, carried him around a corner and that was the last I saw of him.  The vet assured me that they put them down right away, they don't hold them or anything,. Thank you. Tears started flooding my eyes and I about lost it.  I turned around to leave to be greeted by something like 30 sets of human eyes all gawking at me.

I dunno why people have to do that. I swear every person in that place staring at me and this 12 year old or so kid continuously asking me what happened to that dog? What's wrong with him?  Why can't he walk? I'm usually patient and kind with kids, I didn't even respond. You gotta remember this is the third dog I've had to put down in the last 3 years.  Duke is getting up there in years for a Great Dane so I don't know how much time he has left, either.  A dog food bowl that will never be eaten out of again, a big black dog that I will never see again.

Well just - and I mean just  - before I was going to try and load Prince up in the car to deal with this, this lady shows up for the Koi fish.  She never responded to me about what time she intended on showing up and I sent her an email this morning asking. Oh well, deal with it.  Sold the entire pond's worth of fish to her, she had them gone by the time I got home from having Prince put down, though that took almost 3 hours from leaving the driveway to getting home, so yeah.  Now I have the pond itself up for sale, too big to haul to Texas though I wish I could.

Geeze,  I have so much to do and I just had it all drained out of me with Prince.  Guess I need to suck it up and get busy, the clock is ticking and it doesn't care how I feel or what I've been through. But I pretty much knew I would have to put him down soon, his condition deteriorated quickly. So strike that off the list, strike selling the fish off the list, pond is already on Craigslist for sale not much luck with the car.

Regardless, I'm gonna have to force myself to get out there and pump that dye into that system and see if I can figure out where the freon leak is.  I had high hopes of getting alot done in getting things packed in my room today, but I think that is wishful thinking. Who knows, it's still possible I guess.  But I feel shitty now.

So who knows. M'lady's best friend texted me earlier, she wants me to call her to discuss some things.  For her to say that means something is definitely not right with something. So probably take a nap and try to get a little rest, get up, talk to her and maybe do the freon thing.  Otherwise, I'll do it after church tomorrow.

G'day.

ben