quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Our beloved Bearded Dragon crossed over Wednesday night. He was only 7 and a half years old. He was my son's dragon before he went into the Marines and my wife and I took him as our own when my son left nearly 6 years ago. Despite our best efforts, he developed metabolic bone disease and was somewhat crippled from it. In all other respects, he appeared healthy, and gave every indication of loving to interact with my wife. He'd come over to the side of his enclosure when she came into the room. It would eat out of her hand. It would respond when she talked to it, which was often. And every night she would take it out and hold it until it literally went to sleep. I had no idea one could become attached to a lizard. But we did and my wife took such good care of that thing. On Sunday, though, he started to get lethargic. We have no herp vets in our area. On Monday, he started to go pale and got extremely lethargic. By Tuesday, he had lost nearly all his color and his beard had turned black, an indication he was dying. He hung on until wednesday and died that evening. He now occupies a prominent place in our side yard that is known and our "courtyard," a part of our yard we closed off from the rest of the yard for my wife and my sole use.

Not really looking for advice. But just saying the guilt one feels, and the "what did we do wrong, and what could we have done better?" questions are heavy on our minds. He was just a lizard. But he had personality and we miss him greatly.

quote:

Originally posted by Cookster:
I am very sorry for your loss.

We experienced the tragic ‘sudden death’ of one of our cats a few years ago.

“Fluffy Fluff” (named by my then 3 or 4 year old) was a very playful, athletic, affectionate, funny and very social member of our family and to everyone that came over. I am pretty sure that she thought that she was a human.

My daughter and her friend were playing with FF all day and everything was fine.

At around 6 PM or my son noticed that she had not moved from under the table for a while and she wasn’t napping or sleeping either (not her normal spot to do that). I shook the treat box to see if she would move and nada.

I picked her up to see if I could find or see anything going on, and when I gently put her down on all fours her rear end just flopped over and she could not get up on her own. It was heartbreaking to watch her try to get up or move. Ugh.

I took her immediately to the local emergency vet clinic thinking that she may have ingested a toxin or something, but they diagnosed her with a ‘saddle thrombosis’, the prognosis of which is very bad for a cat and probably any other household pet.

A call to my cousin who is a specialized surgical vet confirmed what the clinic told us.

I called the family (wife and two children) to drive over to be with Fluffy Fluff one last time and say good-bye to her.

And just like that, two or three hours later she was gone. So sad.

We spent the next two weeks or so celebrating her life by recalling all of the fun we had with her and looking at photos and video’s.

Dang, I really miss that Fluffy Fluff.

A very strange thing about the whole terrible day, was when my daughter and her friend were playing ‘monkey in the middle’ with FF and having so much fun, her friend innocently (of course) said “Oh my goodness, what would you do it Fluffy Fluff died? We would not be able to have this much fun!”

Anyhoo, remember the great and fun times that you had with your your special family member and try not to feel guilty about what happened. You made a great and comfortable life for him he probably had a lot of fun too.