Junior and Clayton - Final Entry
24 July 2007
NOTE: If you have not yet read of the amazing rescue story, please check out this page before reading this one...
I set these pages up so that each dog would have his or her own page; however, in the case of Junior and Clayton, their lives were so inextricably intertwined, I deemed it fitting that they should share their memorial page too...
Junior and Clayton blessed us with more than 3 years of their lives, and enriched our family by spending those years with us. They both aged gracefully, for the most part; Junior was 7 when we got them, and Clayton was 4. Junior therefore was with us from his middle age into his senior years, and Clayton went through the transition from a dog in his prime to early middle age. They charmed us, they loved us, and we loved them, too. They did not do therapy work, as such, nor did we enter them in any shows; unlike their accomplished predecessors Chance and Rion, these two were home dogs, and happily so. Since their lives' stories are told elsewhere, I will not recount all of that over again...
This page is to tell the poignant story of their passing, which came only a month and a half apart from each other. Without further ado, I take us back to the beginning of June...
Actually, we start this at the end of May. On Thursday 31 May, I noticed that Junior was licking his hind feet almost obsessively, which is common in fire ant territory, so I told Tina about it and we agreed to keep an eye on him. By the next day, he had licked a hot spot on one of his toes, so we decided to see about getting him in to see the vet. Tina was looking Clayton over, and she noticed a low, lumpy swelling on his rib cage, roughly 5 inches in diameter, so we figured we might as well take them both in. Junior began having serious problems getting up off the floor on his own due to the weakness in his rear - this had been going on for several months, but it suddenly took a turn for the worse, so we began to fear some sort of neurological problem. The earliest we could get them in was Monday, so we made an appointment and worried...
By Monday morning, we knew we had a serious problem, and suspected a second, on our hands. Junior was barely able to walk, staggering weakly with no endurance to speak of, and totally unable to manage stairs. We assisted him up and down the front stairs into the yard to perform necessary bodily functions (he was still eating very well, which was true to his character...) His hot spot had become an open wound - he had chewed off about 10-15% of the flesh of the toe, and would not leave it alone. Clayton's swollen lump had more than doubled in size, so we were really frightened by what we would hear.
We were more concerned about Junior, but when the vet heard what had been happening to Clayton, she examined him first. The X-rays said it all: bone cancer in his ribs, which had probably already spread to his lungs and quite possibly beyond. This type of cancer is not treatable, except for palliative care, and given the incredibly fast growth we had seen in the last 4 days, the prognosis was not good: maybe one month, no more than two... We elected not to test exactly which type of cancer was present due to the fact that anything in that area, looking like that on X-rays, would have the same effect and would be equally aggressive; aspirating the tumor for a biopsy would almost certainly cause it to grow even faster, so we opted for the less stressful, less invasive diagnosis.
Having been with the vet throughout the X-ray procedure and the subsequent discussion, I was somewhat in shock from such disastrous news happening so very quickly, so when we went back in the room to look at Junior, I was already kind of numb... We were given Prednisone to reduce inflammation and itching for Junior, and an Elizabethan collar to keep him from chewing his foot anymore. We put the collar on him that first night, and he became so deeply depressed, we opted to try to heavily bandage the foot and sprinkle it with Tabasco sauce to discourage licking... That worked for about a half a day, and he was back at it. He also lost the use of his hind legs completely, and the process of helping him up caused him to cry out in pain; once we got him in a standing position, his legs immediately collapsed when we let go. He had chewed off more than half of the toe by now, and it was clear that he had no feeling at all in his feet or hind legs. He was still eating, though! After a couple of days of no improvement, and his sinking into a depression, we knew the time had come. The vet came out and ended his suffering on 6 June (D-Day; how appropriate...) Junior passed from this life with love and reassurance from his special people. We only realized later that he died the day before Clayton's 7th birthday.
Besides the previously mentioned link to his beloved father, Rion, Junior gave us all his heart as if he had been with us all of his life. He bonded with me almost as strongly as Rion did, and so much of Rion shone out in Junior's appearance and actions, it softened the blow of Rion's loss immeasurably. He also made the breakthrough with Joshua, who had been scared of the big dogs, didn't like the slobber, etc... Well, Junior smashed right through that barrier and taught Joshua that the big dogs give big love.
Clayton fought on against his growing illness for another month and a half. I will not go into details about that now, as this page is not intended to gross people out... He maintained good to excellent spirits until the last day or two; he let us know he loved us by bringing his favorite toys to us, standing and wagging his tail gently while we petted and hugged him - he was wasting away the whole time, but he never lost his gentle, loving personality. He had a couple of bad days, but he fought with the stoic courage Mastiffs are so famous for...
Over this past weekend, Tina and I both had to see the handwriting on the wall - the time was coming. Clayton almost stopped eating, and the palliative meds were not really relieving his pain much anymore. This morning, Clayton told us it was time, so we honored his needs. His passing, again with Tina and me holding him and comforting him, was as peaceful as I have ever seen.
Clayton's gentle, but fun-loving nature was special to us. Like Junior, he gave us his heart as though he had always been with us. He trusted us completely, and up to the end, he loved to play with his stuffed toys...
Having lived all of Clayton's life together, the pair now sleep in the shade of a huge red oak tree out back, along with Chance, Rion, Aggie and Thea. Clayton and Junior are side-by-side, together forever as is only fitting. They both have peace, and are pain-free now, but they leave us behind to deal with the selfish hurt we can't escape... Our greatest comfort is that we gave those wonderful dogs a loving home for the 3.5 years they were with us, and I daresay they loved it too...
So now we have just the two Mastiffs (and two Labs and a 16-year-old coyote mix who will outlive me, I think...) Tiny and LoriBay have been getting lots of hugs these past few days, and no doubt many more to come.
Here's to hoping that we will not bury any more Mastiffs for several years - we have done enough of that for now.
Those of you who share your lives with Mastiffs, or any other dog for that matter, please give them a special hug and a treat for Junior and Clayton, and take joy in their continued presence in your lives.