You will be missed Akhala...

The last two months have not been easy. My mom got really sick a with pneumonia and was in the hospital for almost a week. She recovered from the pneumonia, but we found out she has Emphysema. It's not a serious case, but regardless it's still there and it's something that will most likely get worse with time. It's not something I'm really choosing to think about right now because I don't know if my heart will let me. I just don't want to think about it.

Then Todd's dad was in a bad accident. He ran off the road and hit a tree with such force that he broke his arm in 3 places. He also got a nice gouge on his leg from trying to get out of the car and had to get stitches. Although witnesses said they were surprised that he even survived to look at the car. I'd like to go up and visit him soon, but things have been non-stop around here. It's really frustrating.

They say things come in threes and I have to believe that is true after this week. My sister called me Wednesday the 21st in the morning and told me something was a little off with Akhala, our family dog. She said the day before he had been sleeping in strange spots, like in the middle of the doorway or rooms. He usually would sleep under the kitchen table, he's done that since he was a puppy. So I understood that this was pretty strange behavior. She also said he was moving very slowly and at one point, he walked right up to her, looked her right in the eye, moved his head in a strange angle, like he was trying to get air, and then slowly turned around and went back into the kitchen. Fran knew something was wrong immediately. She went out into the kitchen asking Kay-kay (his nickname) what was wrong. She looked into his mouth and his tongue and his gums were almost white. Which means the blood that makes his gums pink was elsewhere. She called an old friend, Tiffany who I believe is studying to be a vet. She came over, checked out Akhala, and she said she thought he might be anemic. When an animal is anemic, they tend to bleed out. There was no sign of blood on the outside. His belly was distended and she thought that might mean he was bleeding internally. So on Wednesday, Fran called me and asked me to come over and watch the kids while she took Akhala to the vet. I left Ava with Todd because Fran's boys were sick and went over to watch the boys.

A little background story: A little while after our family dog, Noah, an over grown Sheltie Collie was hit by a car, my brother and sister in law bought my mother a beautiful Siberian Husky puppy. Her name was Meika, which means Little Raccoon. She had a beautiful little black mask around her blue eyes. When Meika got older, my mom and her best friend Nibby decided to breed their dogs. Nibby had a big beautiful yellow lab named Joe. So they got the two together and before long Meika was pregnant. I remember the day the puppies were born because I was the only one there. I graduated from high school early in 97 and so on May 7, 1997, I was home while my brothers and sisters were at school and my mom was at work. I knew it was the day because Meika was acting so strange. She wouldn't let me near her and she kept curling up under my mom's computer desk. So I moved her makeshift birthing bed- a baby pool lined with newspaper- to my mom's room and called my mom. Meika was a very wilful dog and we were a little worried about what she was going to do with the puppies, so I stayed just outside the door while she gave birth. She gave birth to 3 beautiful little puppies (which was surprising, usually dogs have a lot more) and she was a wonderful mother to them. We of course named them all. Nala (later called Nikki by her owners) was the skinny brown one. Chloe was the black one. And the big puffball with the beautiful face was named Akhala (ah-KAY-lah). Akhala means wolf, I believe in an American Indian language. We sold the other two, and we got several offers for Akhala, but we wanted him and we begged to keep him. So, my mom has a soft heart for fluffy cuteness, so she agreed. He was huge. He had these big massive paws and this big head. He eventually grew into both, and he was the largest dog I've ever owned. Some people mistook him for having a little St Bernard in him. But Meika was a pure bread Siberian Husky and Joe was pure bread yellow lab. Joe was a very big dog though, so I'm sure Kay-kay got his size from him. Akhala grew to be a sweet mannered, teddy bear. He had his moments though, and with a little of Meika's attitude he could get grumpy. He would growl at you, but usually it was to say hello. I would get him riled up so much that he would sound like he was going to attack someone, but he was just playing. I think my sister and her husband got that on tape to play at Halloween because he sounded to scary. But he was a lovable dog. I remember my mom one day tried to take him outside on a leash. My mom has one leg and a prosthetic, so some things can be difficult for her to do. Well, walking Akhala would be one of them. He took off the minute he saw a squirrel and with the force that his big mass created, she landed flat on her back. He immediately knew he had done something wrong and he came right back and sat next to my mom and nuzzled her as if to say "I'm sorry..." So, yea, he had this, almost ancient stoic way about him. He had a presence that could comfort and yet you didn't want to cross him because you knew he could tear your head off. He was a great companion.

So, back to the story. Fran took him to the vet and my mom met her there. The doctor said that he needed to go to the hospital right away. He also believed Akhala was bleeding internally, but there was no way to tell without an ultrasound. The hospital was all the way up in Aurora. So, Fran came home to get a few things and check on her son, Collin. Collin had a bit of a fever, so Fran decided to stay home and I went with mom to take Akhala to the hospital. When we got there, they took him right in and checked him out. The nurse had us come back to the room and we waited a few minutes for the doctor to come in. She came in and basically told us the same thing Tiffany had told Fran. She said he had anemia and that because he was not bleeding out, that he was bleeding internally. She said that it's usually due to a tumor in the spleen. She showed us a syringe that she had put into his abdomen to check for blood. It was full of blood. She said he most likely had a tumor and it was bleeding out. We asked to have an ultrasound done so we would know exactly what was wrong. While she went back out, my mom and I sat there for a few minutes holding hands and crying. We didn't really say much. The doctor came back in and told us it would be a little bit, so we went outside for a while and then waited in the waiting room. We made some calls to the family and then the doctor came out to tell us the news. She was right. He had a tumor in his spleen and another one in his liver, along with a bunch of little nodules in his liver. He was bleeding profusely into his abdomen and she was pretty sure he wouldn't make the night. She offered us two options. One would be surgery. It was very risky and if they were able to get the tumors out, he would still have the other little ones to worry about. She said it would prolong his life for maybe a few months, and he would be in pain for a lot of it. Our other option was to put him down. We couldn't make him go through the surgery. It would be for our comfort, not his. He had lived a great long almost 10 years. For large dogs, that is a long time. He was 70 in dog years. So, we decided that putting him down was the the better option of the two. But it was heart wrenching. Ive never had to do something like that, and neither had my mom. They allowed us to have time with him, so we spend about 45 minutes in the room with him, just talking to him, crying, and feeding him all the treats in the treat bag Fran had given me for him. He loved that. He ate every one. Wouldn't eat his regular food, but he'd eat a bunch of treats, the sneak. So when we felt like we were just prolonging the inevitable, we had the doctor come back in. He laid down on the ground while we pet him and told him he was a good boy. We cried and told him we loved him over and over. She gave him the shot in his IV, so he never felt a thing. He fell asleep and he was gone. He was a beautiful, wonderful companion and he had a heart of gold. He will be sorely missed by so many. But we know he's in a much better place now. So, thanks Akhala for a great 10 years with you. We love you.

Here are a whole bunch of pictures of him.

Nikki, Akhala, and Chloe

Akhala and Bungee
The rest of these, my sister Jessica took. These are all really great, but I love the black and white ones. They're beautiful.

This on has to be my all time favorite of him. Just love the up close and personal nose lol.