She Will be Missed

Cocoa, begging in the kitchen

it is with a heavy heart and tears in my eyes that i share that Katie and I have made the very difficult decision to put Cocoa down. Last January, she had been given a month – we have been blessed to have 11 since we were given that news. It has been a very up and down roller coaster of a ride with mostly highs throughout, but she has been pretty bad this last week. The kidney issues that she’s always had and been able to handle without showing any signs of problem, has really taken its hold on our four-legged family member. We can’t get her to eat even her favorite foods of waffles, doughnuts or even pizza (or if she will touch it she is unable to keep it down). She’s lost a lot of weight, can barely get up the stairs and can’t get in the bed (I’ve been picking her up so she is able to sleep next to me). We feel that this is the slump she won’t come out of and we want Joseph to remember the good times he has had with her and not have a lasting memory of her end. It has been very difficult watching Cocoa suffer as opposed to being her energetic, happy self.

I am very fortunate and thankful to have been able to take her out pheasant hunting for the Wisconsin opener this year – for the one final hunt. I will never forget the wonderful times we spent together in the field, her dirty looks when I missed (it has been known to happen) and the absolute joy you could see on her face as she bounded in the tall grass after upland game. She kept me company during those long road trips and would nudge my arm to get me to pet her as she sat in the navigation chair (passenger seat) of Sunshine and of course, I would comply.

Thank you to all who have kept our precious Cocoa and the family in your prayers – the myriad of notes from we still get today from KTIS’s prayer request even though Katie put that out there last January.

And to Cocoa, this has been a very difficult decision for us to make. We love you tons and I promise we’ll get some birds when we meet again.

Edit: Cocoa, being the awesome dog that she was, died silently in the back seat on the way to the vet. She was holding on for as long as possible, yet she still went on her own while Katie and I held her with tears in our eyes. So thank you Cocoa, for not making us make that decision. We love and miss you!

it’s never easy… to say goodbye

Last Saturday, i took the pup, Cocoa, to the vet for her rabies shot. she’s been fighting kidney/renal issues pretty much her entire life. she has NEVER shown any real signs outside of fairly frequent urination and some bad breath (which is a by product of the toxins not being broken down correctly/completely in her kidneys). in fact, she continues to be VERY excited whenever we take out the tennis ball for a seemingly never ending game of fetch. i asked about the breath during the visit and the vet tech suggested we draw blood and see where her ‘numbers’ were and how she was doing… well, we got a call from the vet yesterday… she’s not doing good. apparently, all of the supplements, drops, powders and whatnot that we’ve tried over the years has run its course. we got a call on sunday from the clinic that the numbers did not look good. the vet himself called yesterday…

vet says she might have a month left.
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Insanity – Getting Back Into the Mix

so memorial day weekend has come and gone. and an extra day off on both sides of the break and now it’s time to get back into the fray! i didn’t know where to start coming back, today is the thursday workout that i did last week before the break (the Max Recovery workout). so i did the Cardio Abs workout today. it’s a quick one and i did not do it as much as i should’ve the first month. i’ll start with day 40 tomorrow and get back into Max workouts (eek!). sad thing is, i still find myself dripping with sweat.

the holiday break for me was nice and relaxing. i went up to the cabin to get some fishing in – pretty low key weekend. j and the wife stayed back and so did cocoa. i got a bunch of fishing in (caught a lot of largemouth bass and small pikes, but not the crappies and walleyes we were looking for). and even slept in a couple days

it’s good to be back though; i missed being away from the family – even though it was just a couple days.

inspirational quote of the day:
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
– Henry David Thoreau