Rest in Peace Baxter

12/13/99 – 6/13/11

You may remember Baxter my older foster brother who has been with us since February. If not here is a link to his interview– click here. Well yesterday Baxter got up and when he went out to do his business he couldn’t use his left leg and was in pain. Mom and Dad rushed him to the vet and they did x-rays and an exam. From the picture it appeared that there was something strange on his tailbone going into his spine. So they sent him home with a shot and pain medication pills and an order to see him first thing today. Overnight he got worst and started having problems with is other leg and he couldn’t wag his tail anymore. He also started to snap/bite out at anyone because he was hurting. So he had to wear a muzzle when he was around people. Mom took him back first thing in the morning and they did another x-ray. All the vets talked and recommended it was time for him to cross over the rainbow bridge. Due to his age and all his health problems if it was cancer he couldn’t handle the treatments. If it wasn’t they would still have had to remove the tumor. The surgery would have been to much for his enlarged heart to handle. So mom let Baxter spend the day at the vets office so he could say goodbye to all his friends there and they could monitor his pain (he lived there at one point when his mom got sick before she passed). Mom and Dad came back at 5, spent an hour with him and at 6 with the help of the vet Baxter crossed over the rainbow bridge.

Obviously we are all heartbroken and my parents are leaking. I miss him too and keep checking his crate thinking I’ll see him. Mom told me she thinks Baxter was ready to go and be with his mom up in heaven. At the vets he laid down by mom and dad and put his paw on mom’s foot. He was so tired and hurting.

When we signed up for this whole fostering thing we never expected to have to make this heart wrenching decision to put a foster dog down. You think you keep a dog a while and then get to see a happy ending with the dog going to a forever home. However, throught this all we realized that We were Baxter’s forever home. We gave him comfort on his last days and we were the ones who were so blessed to spend time with him. We saw him get to be a dog again and play with his friends at the doggies social and go to the dog park for the first time. We were able to give him cute nicknames such as our grumpy old man and westie water tanker since he could put down bowls and bowls of water. We saw him through his good days and his not so good days and got his sweet westie kisses. We also got his westie snaps when he didn’t want to take his medication but we knew he would get over it. We also saw him steal all the bully sticks and stockpile them in his crate. We knew better than to take them back. Baxter was what we called the “dog father” he ruled the house and kept those cats in line (and us too).

Baxter we will miss you so much but we know we have a little westie angel looking down on us protecting us and telling us where those mean cats are hiding so we can chase them.

Love you foster bro,

Preston (and Elvis too)