December 18, 2009
Marlee has been on a steady decline for a couple weeks, with the worst being the past 9 days since she stopped being willing to eat and would barely drink. In those nine days she transitioned from peaceful and sleeping a lot, to last night seeming scared and in pain. It was a rough night. My daughter and I sat up with her for most of the night. It was heartbreaking to see how hard she was struggling. We had hoped to support her through to a natural death, but once things got so bad for her I realized that this is not like hospice care for people where you have pain relief and anxiety relief to offer to someone. She seemed desperate for our company, and we gave that to her, but it wasn't enough. This morning we made the decision to take her to the vet to have her put to sleep. It seemed the most compassionate option for her. She deserved such a much better life than she got before she came to us, and she deserved peace and rest at the end. Now she is out of her pain and resting, snuggled up in one of my children's cozy red blankets. We buried her under one of our apple trees, right near the play fort. Marlee was always happy when the kids would come out to play, even though she was limited in how much playing she was able to do with them. She now has a beautiful, shady resting spot where we will think of her often.
Having Marlee in my life has been a challenge, but it was one that I was clear on when I accepted it. She needed us. We said yes. And we loved and cared for her as best we could, all the way to the end of her life.
Marlee gave us many opportunities to choose to give when we might rather have not. Her needs reminded us to stretch and continue to love and care, simply because it helped us do what we wanted to do for her, and be more of the people we want to be. Her patient acceptance of her limitations, and her joy at the parts of life she could experience were admirable. Her kitty cat friends will miss her, I know. They would always come right over to snuggle with her when she was outside.
Thanks to all of you that helped us out when finances were so tight that we did not know how we were going to be able to care for her properly. Thank you for getting involved. Thank you for investing in this sweet doggie. She was worth all of it.
We Need Your Help
I started this site back in the fall of 2008 after adopting Marlee, a rescue dog that came stumbling down our road that August. Since then we have been so pleased to share our home and life with Marlee. She is a sweet soul who has had a hard life, and it has been an honor to see her enjoying a safe, comfortable life here. She still has a lot of struggles, but is living her life in her own way, with acceptance and love just as she is.
It was a real stretch for me to put up this blog, because I am normally very independent and do not expect others to financially support my family or the decisions I have made. When I took the risk to reach out to others, it was an amazing process, because I was blessed to meet some of the most wonderful people in the world who continue to have a positive impact on me and my family every day. I now see that by being willing to share our story and our need, we have opened up a pathway for love and blessing between people that would otherwise be strangers. What a cool thing!
Tonite (Oct. 2009) I have updated the costs and issues related to Marlee's needs. Thankfully, expensive monthly lab work stopped late last year, so the monthly costs are reduced.
I am a work-at-home mom of six children, ages 6-17. I run several internet-based businesses, plus homeschool my children. My amazing and hard-working husband is a professional firefighter, and also works on about half of his "days off" as an EMT.
Despite living modestly, working hard, being pretty good at thrift, and fairly resourceful, times are tough for us just like they are for everybody else. Adding a dog to the family was not in our plan or our budget. We do not have extra money to spend on dog food and vet bills. We're doing well just to keep all of the needs met here for the 8 humans in our family. But then one day Marlee walked down our road and we felt like we had to help her.
The extent of Marlee's health problems include:
hypothyroidism (requires monthly medication)
kidney and liver disease (requires monthly medication)
muscle wasting disease (probably because of how long she was malnourished)
pancreas disease
cataracts
and she is deaf.
She is also an older dog, or is at least prematurely aged because of the way she has suffered in her life. She has been neglected severely and has a lot of additional needs for her health.
When we found out how many problems she has, some people suggested that we have her put to sleep. I know that a lot of people would do that. To me, even though I am not a super duper die-hard animal rescue person, it seems wrong to me to end her life just because she is not in perfect health. The medications that she has been taking have clearly made her feel better. She is a much happier dog now, which is so nice to see.
It is clear that this dog has suffered a lot in her life. The humans in her life failed her. I think she deserves to live out the rest of her life safe, cared for, and loved. We have an opportunity to show compassion and love to this creature even though she does not have much to "give back" to us. She is not a fun, cute, playful puppy. She does not go fetch or thrill my kids with funny tricks. What she is, though, is an animal that deserves love and care, and an opportunity for us to live out unconditional love, and kindhearted service. This is a great lesson for our entire family, and I want to see it through.
Here's the problem: This is more expensive than we can handle all by ourselves.
In the first couple months we spent well over $500 on vet bills, her kennel crate, and dog food. I cringe just to type that. (this is the first time I added up how much this is costing us) No wonder we're having trouble paying our own regular bills!
In a month Marlee needs approximately $65 of medication, plus food (around $40 a month, I think). She also still needs some other things from the vet, such as dental care, medical tests, etc.
I have heard of people doing fund raisers for adopting children where they try to get people to donate just $1 each. So today I thought, "why not see if there are people that would be willing to donate a dollar to help us take care of Marlee?" Surely there are enough people that would share a dollar with us to help us keep on giving Marlee a life worth living. Right?
We are regular people, just like you. I don't plan to make money off of this. I won't be buying canopy beds or monogrammed cashmere doggie sweaters with this money. What I will be using the money for is for:
Marlee's medication ($65 per month)
dog food (approx. $40 per month)
ongoing vet bills for regular checkups, lab work, etc.
things Marlee may need (like right now she needs some no-slip doggie shoes, because her muscles are so weak that it is really hard for her to walk on our hard floors)
(**donation information has been removed now that Marlee has died)
It was a real stretch for me to put up this blog, because I am normally very independent and do not expect others to financially support my family or the decisions I have made. When I took the risk to reach out to others, it was an amazing process, because I was blessed to meet some of the most wonderful people in the world who continue to have a positive impact on me and my family every day. I now see that by being willing to share our story and our need, we have opened up a pathway for love and blessing between people that would otherwise be strangers. What a cool thing!
Tonite (Oct. 2009) I have updated the costs and issues related to Marlee's needs. Thankfully, expensive monthly lab work stopped late last year, so the monthly costs are reduced.
I am a work-at-home mom of six children, ages 6-17. I run several internet-based businesses, plus homeschool my children. My amazing and hard-working husband is a professional firefighter, and also works on about half of his "days off" as an EMT.
Despite living modestly, working hard, being pretty good at thrift, and fairly resourceful, times are tough for us just like they are for everybody else. Adding a dog to the family was not in our plan or our budget. We do not have extra money to spend on dog food and vet bills. We're doing well just to keep all of the needs met here for the 8 humans in our family. But then one day Marlee walked down our road and we felt like we had to help her.
The extent of Marlee's health problems include:
hypothyroidism (requires monthly medication)
kidney and liver disease (requires monthly medication)
muscle wasting disease (probably because of how long she was malnourished)
pancreas disease
cataracts
and she is deaf.
She is also an older dog, or is at least prematurely aged because of the way she has suffered in her life. She has been neglected severely and has a lot of additional needs for her health.
When we found out how many problems she has, some people suggested that we have her put to sleep. I know that a lot of people would do that. To me, even though I am not a super duper die-hard animal rescue person, it seems wrong to me to end her life just because she is not in perfect health. The medications that she has been taking have clearly made her feel better. She is a much happier dog now, which is so nice to see.
It is clear that this dog has suffered a lot in her life. The humans in her life failed her. I think she deserves to live out the rest of her life safe, cared for, and loved. We have an opportunity to show compassion and love to this creature even though she does not have much to "give back" to us. She is not a fun, cute, playful puppy. She does not go fetch or thrill my kids with funny tricks. What she is, though, is an animal that deserves love and care, and an opportunity for us to live out unconditional love, and kindhearted service. This is a great lesson for our entire family, and I want to see it through.
Here's the problem: This is more expensive than we can handle all by ourselves.
In the first couple months we spent well over $500 on vet bills, her kennel crate, and dog food. I cringe just to type that. (this is the first time I added up how much this is costing us) No wonder we're having trouble paying our own regular bills!
In a month Marlee needs approximately $65 of medication, plus food (around $40 a month, I think). She also still needs some other things from the vet, such as dental care, medical tests, etc.
I have heard of people doing fund raisers for adopting children where they try to get people to donate just $1 each. So today I thought, "why not see if there are people that would be willing to donate a dollar to help us take care of Marlee?" Surely there are enough people that would share a dollar with us to help us keep on giving Marlee a life worth living. Right?
We are regular people, just like you. I don't plan to make money off of this. I won't be buying canopy beds or monogrammed cashmere doggie sweaters with this money. What I will be using the money for is for:
Marlee's medication ($65 per month)
dog food (approx. $40 per month)
ongoing vet bills for regular checkups, lab work, etc.
things Marlee may need (like right now she needs some no-slip doggie shoes, because her muscles are so weak that it is really hard for her to walk on our hard floors)
(**donation information has been removed now that Marlee has died)
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