Death of first pet 😢

 During the 2021 holiday season, our dog Angus passed away. We adopted him in 2011 from a family that needed to get rid of him. At first, we were not sure if we would be able to keep him because my brother, Vinny is allergic to some animals. It turned out that Vinny could tolerate Angus and we were able to keep him. Angus was our first family pet and we were very excited to have a new member in our family.


For years, Angus went on family trips with us. We would go camping and hiking and he always enjoyed being alongside of us. Angus loved to play in our backyard and go on long walks with me. Angus did not like to play in the water or ride on our boat. He was much more content to just lay on the patio instead of getting in the pool. 

In June of 2020, Angus became sick with dementia. As the months passed, our family made adjustments  to our daily schedules in order to have someone available to tend to him when he needed. I remember having to stay awake with him at night because he would become very scared and confused. He would just stand and stare at the wall while crying and barking excessively. Dog dementia is oddly similar to human dementia in the sense that the sufferer has no idea who or where they are. I would pet Angus and reassure him  For months we assisted him as his health deteriorated and he became weaker and more confused  as the months passed. The hardest part of Angus’ dementia was that it was only really noticeable during the night hours. This caused him to be frantic during the night hours and sleep during the day hours. Since he was a member of our family, we continued to accommodate him the best we could.

Angus’ health began to quickly deteriorate early in December, 2021. He visited the vet multiple days in a row. He would need hydration packs and IV medication. When he was at home, he seemed to be in pain and constantly exhausted. Our family made the difficult decision just before Christmas last year to put Angus out of his misery. My brothers, sister and I said our final goodbye to our loyal friend on December 21, 2021 and my parents took him to the vet one final time. This experience was difficult but we knew it was time to do what was best for Angus.


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