RIP Austin
September 22nd, 2007 | 
Author: Before we left to live in Lanzarote, I had the pleasure of getting to know a lovely man called Alex. He now lives back in his native USA… but we manage to keep in sporadic touch via MySpace.
He’s one of those truly gifted creative people… and writes the most amazing blogs. Really should tell him to do it on his own site, instead of just MySpace… but hey.
Anyway… I usually log in to his page just to read his latest offering. And today I found this one. Austin was Alex’s family dog, and beloved friend. I’ll let you read the rest for yourself.
Austin had problems breathing around 10:30 Wednesday night, so I rushed him to the K-State Vet emergency room. The doctors there said he appeared to have larynx paralysis, which causes the larynx to close incorrectly and reduced the amount of oxygen he was getting. He was over heated and dehydrated. They put him on oxygen and an IV drip to stabilized him. When he was finally stabilized they let us see him and then we went home.Around 5:30, I got a call saying that he had gone into cardiac arrest and he was not responding or breathing on his own. I told them just to “make him as comfortable as possible” whatever the fuck that really means. When we picked him up, the doctor was on the verge of tears because she thought he was going to make it and couldn’t understand why he didn’t, but that’s just the kind of dog Austin was. Everybody loved him. She said he lost consciousness when he went into arrest and he didn’t feel anything, which gives me comfort but doesn’t make it any easier.
We were going to try and bury him at the lake, but a four foot hole was not a feasible idea despite my best efforts to dig through with a shovel. My mom finally convinced me to take Austin to the vet in order to have him cremated. Unfortunately, the vet was not open for an hour. I feel guilty, but neither my mother or I had eaten in hours and we needed food so while my dog lay dead in the back of my jeep, my mom and I had breakfast. We finally got to the vet to have him privately cremated. It was actually the hardest thing of the morning, leaving him on the exam room table. The box was still warm from his last remaining heat and I can still feel it today.
I am now faced with the option of memorializing his ashes at home or spreading them at the lake. I guess I will have to make that decision later.
Last entry, I spoke of the trifecta of things that tie us together, weddings, births, and deaths. In the past month, I have experienced two of them and this one truly hurts the most. I actually felt my heart break, sounding like a cracking limb of a tree. Sort of fitting, since Austin enjoyed chasing sticks by the lake.
I’m going to miss that big, lovable beast.
You can see Alex’s page by clicking HERE
Posted in Guest Bloggers
