A Tribute to Eddy

You’re probably here to read up on garage doors and the like, but we recently lost somone very near and dear to our hearts…
I would like to take a moment and pay tribute to “Eddy,” our beloved JRT who lost his life to cancer one week ago. My husband and I are avid pet lovers. We have a menagerie at our home which includes a lab or two, a Rat Terrier, a cat and a bird. Eddy was the only puppy I personally purchased from a pet store nine years ago as a gift to my husband. He always wanted a Jack Russel Terrier. As it turned out, he was just as much a gift to me and the rest of our family and friends who had an opportunity to know him. For those of you who have lost a pet you know how difficult it can be. It’s like losing a family member or a close friend.

I want to share our experience not only for my own therapeutic outlet, but also to help educate anyone who may go through this with their own beloved dog.

It was late June when Eddy started sneezing. In early July we noticed a blood smudge here and there in our house. It was nothing for Skip and Eddy to play hard against each other and if a ball was involved, the game was on. We checked them both out and found nothing. We left on vacation and when we picked them up from boarding our vet had warned us to keep an eye on Eddy, as he was bleeding a little from his left nostril. This was on the 13th of July. The next weekend I took him along with Maggie who needed her shots to have him checked out. The vet noticed a little blood in the nasal– could’ve been a cut, or perhaps, he had a nasal infection. He assured us if it was a nasal tumor there would be a malformation of his nose. He got a shot of cortisone and antibiotics. The next day he was just fine. The following week the sneezing became worse.

As I sat in the waiting room on the 24th of July, Eddy sat in front of me terrified, of course, and I saw a lump extending out over his left eye. I was devastated. This literally popped out overnight! One can only imagine the horror that passes through. The vet confirmed it was a hard mass and his prognosis was not good, as he had just examined him one week earlier. He did not have the expertise, but felt it could be an aggressive cancer. He gave me a referral to a specialist and they were able to pull fluid from the site and send off to pathology. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma on Friday, July 27. The specialist gave us options, but warned us that this type of cancer is 100% fatal and will most likely spread if it hadn’t already. Had Eddy acted any different one bit whatsoever during any of this time, it may have helped us accept it. What did change drastically was his nose after any activity. Like a JRT isn’t going to be active? This was very difficult. We took the weekend to absorb the news and as usual, I googled and googled with no real hope to find.

We made the decision to spend the best time we could give him and had planned to take him fishing. That didn’t happen. A storm came through on a Wednesday night. The first “real” rain we have gotten all summer. It was thundering and lightening and Eddy was out running in the rain like a puppy. He loved thunder and fireworks. The next day he was on his pillow all day. By Saturday, August 11, it was too much. We would not allow him to suffer. I won’t explain in detail, but the symptoms we feared worse took over. He left us in peace.

The purpose of this is to inform you of the events that took place in our situation. The only obvious signs of this cancer that we saw was sneezing, blood from the nose, and in the last few days his inactivity. The location of his tumor was in his sinus cavity. Too close to his eye for radiation and the doctor feared it would eat through the bone and go to his brain. In the last two weeks of his diagnosis he was on pain pills although it was difficult to tell if he was in pain, as I couldn’t see it in his eyes, nor did he act any different one bit whatsoever… it wasn’t until the last few days that we knew.

I thank God for the blessing of Eddy. He was an old soul with so much character. May God bless all the four-legged creatures he has given us to love and care for and be a part of our lives. I hope you’ll watch our video that Eddy was a part of. He was the star and we were so proud.