My Big Boy Maverick

by Cindy
(National City, MI)

Maverick was a Belgian/German shepherd. We called him Mavy or Mavaroni and cheese or Mavydoodle. He was the best friend a human could ask for. He was devoted, protective, loving and beautiful.

One day we noticed when Mavy urinated, there was blood in it. We took him to the vet and while checking him for an infection they also checked him out all over. We were expecting to hear that he had a urinary tract infection but were not prepared to hear that they found a mass near his rectum that we later found to be cancer.

The prognosis was very grim. Surgery might leave him incontinent and infection could set in due to the area of the cancer. We decided to let him have the best quality of life possible and not to put him through surgery or chemo therapy just to gain a few months and possibly diminish his quality of life over his remaining months.

Mavy ended up defying the odds and lived longer than we or our vet expected! Soon he began bleeding again and we took him back in. The vet did not find any bacteria in his urine so that ruled out an infection. It was thought that Mavy's cancer was causing problems with his prostate now. We took him home and gave him pain meds, however, he would not eat and would throw up his water even. He really deteriorated in the two days since he had been to the vet and we had to make the gut wrenching decision to send him over the Rainbow Bridge.

He loved his car rides and that's where our boy spent his last moments. Our vet was kind enough to come out to our vehicle and even crawled up inside the back while I held Mavy in my arms. His passing was quick and very peaceful. I told him how much he was loved as his body relaxed and he was gone.

All of this just happened yesterday so it is still very fresh in my mind. I can't say how I feel. It's mostly numbness and extreme grief. I am hoping the pain will ease little by little as time goes on but for now, everywhere I am in our house, there are little reminders of my boy and the tears start to flow all over again. I know we made the right decision for him but I keep reliving it all and I miss him so much.