#rescuedog

Today, I said goodbye to my dear old Flynnie. He'd been seemingly doing OK (the pic here was taken last week) but then suddenly & dramatically deteriorated over the past 48-72 hours. Yesterday evening, after growing increasingly worried, we rushed to the vets & had blood-work done. The results were awful - poor Flynn was in kidney failure, plus he was severely anaemic (caused by the chronic kidney disease), & it looked like his liver, pancreas etc were beginning to give up too. We returned to the vets first thing & thankfully, although he wasn't doing appointments that day, we were seen by our lovely regular vet who has been caring for Flynn's (many, complex!) medical issues for the past year. The only kind option at this point was to let Flynn go. I was with Flynn while he passed.. he slipped off very gently & peacefully, while I stroked his head & told him he was such a good boy.

For Flynn, I am honestly relieved he didn't suffer too badly for too long at the end… he was OK & then he was not & then he was gone. As for me… I am shattered & sort of in shock. I've known for a long while that at *some point* Flynn's only remaining kidney would be unable to continue working but at the same time… we had so many serious health scares which he survived & then this final one snuck up on us so fast, I can hardly believe what happened. I don't know what to do with myself… & the house is so hideously empty.