Photography

Squeaky - RIP

Unfortunately, Squeaky is no longer with us. She became ill with a snuffles type disease in early August and one of the issues here was that she would not eat. The vet could find no real cause for her illness, so we were left trying to coax her to eat. She did get over it after about two weeks and she was her normal self for another couple of weeks, but she had lost a bit of weight. Unfortunately, this weight loss proved to be terminal.

As a tribute to Squeaky, here are a few words, and some of the last pics I took of her.

I really like this pic, which was taken just before she got really sick. It looks for all the world as though she has just had a sip of beer, but she was just trying to get rid of the snot from her nose. Pat was in Natal for Ray's birthday in mid-July when I took the pic. Ray passed away on 6 August, with the memorial service due to take place on 13 August. On 11 August Squeaky started sneezing and coughing, so I took her to the vet the next day, as mentioned above. Not a nice time for Pat who went down to Natal for the funeral on 13 August.

Squeaky really loved Ray's boots. I have no idea what she smelt on them, but every time Ray came to visit, she would rub and love his boots as though they were smeared with catnip.

This picture was taken in late August while I was writing my page on camping chairs. She really loved these chairs. I was using them every day for our lunchtime drinks in the sun, and it was her view that the chair was put out for her. Historically, she was quite happy to sit on a plastic chair, but once these came out, the plastic chair was no longer up to her standards.

Unfortunately, the disease hit her again in mid-Septmber and after this she started losing weight quite quickly due to her reluctance to eat. We tried everything we could to get her to eat, trying different foods as she would not touch her staple diet, tuna.

The disease went through what seemed like two week cycles. She would be ravenous after the illness cycle and eat almost continuously for a couple of days, but the weight loss was too much. The muscles in her back legs started atrophying and this was the beginning of the end.

By the end of October, she could hardly jump and she started dragging her rear right leg when she walked (this is the leg we think she damaged when she was a stray). This gave her a curious wobbly gait. We built a ramp for her to get into the window, but she was now petrified of heights. I think in one of her attempts to get into the window, she must have fallen and hurt herself.

The drooping head in this pic is a give-away that she was not well. You can also see the weight loss in the rear leg.

She still wanted the closeness she was used to: snuggling on the bed and sitting on my lap while watching TV. But, here you can see from her tail and the angle of her right leg, she was no longer really in control. Her walk was more of a stumble than an actual walk and she would fall over if she tried to move too fast.

While having a beer with Clint on 31 October, he told me about a vet he was really impressed with, who sorted out a growth on his dog's stomach. I contacted this vet, Janine, who said to bring her in. Janine kept her overnight to do tests. She could find no real problem other than the blocked nose, so gave me some medication to see if it would help, with a view to a follow-up visit a week later.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. In the early hours of the morning on 6 November, Squeaky got off the bed and fell, and couldn't get up again. Her front legs were also starting to give up. It was here when we decided she was now suffering too much.

We will miss you my Squeaky...

(updated: 9 November 2022)