No Good Deed

So last week, my sister fell and wrecked her knee. I headed up to her place to meet her at the ER and get her home. Then, seeing as she was on crutches and walking an old dog on crutches seemed harder than it needed to be, I took her doggo home with us.

Said doggo is a sweet old girl - just turned 13 - and very clearly on the decline. Sis and I have been talking for the last couple of weeks about how much trouble the girlie has been having on their walks. She trips. She stumbles. She quakes.

She's old.

Today, my sister was planning to come collect her doggo -- she's getting around well enough and missed her company. Given that doggo was less than impressed with a week of puppy enthusiasm this seemed like a good idea. (Sleepy Puppy has been so! excited! to! have! someone! to! play! Even though she didn't really play.) I did mention that last night and then again this morning, doggo hadn't really seemed interested in eating and that today she was coughing quite a lot and her breathing seemed labored. On that conversation, sister and I decided maybe we'd keep her over night and I'd take her to the vet in the morning, because sis doesn't have a vet at her new place yet and I'm closer to the usual one.

I decided to take everyone upstairs and leave old doggo in the basement to see if having some rest time would help her settle and, well, rest.

After supper, youngest wanted to go down and get some toys from the playroom. We said fine, but make sure to leave doggo alone, because she was resting.

He goes down. There's a moment. Then "Something happened to doggo!"

Hubby and I exchange horrified looks and he runs down and I hear him sending youngest up. So I reinforce that, tell eldest to keep Sleepy Puppy and youngest up here and scoot down to help. Poor doggo is collapsed on the floor in a puddle of watery blood -- from her lungs I'm guessing? It was concentrated around her nose. Labored breathing and then she was gone.

I have never watched a dog die of natural causes. We've always had them put down when it was obvious that it was necessary (we didn't think we were there yet with her, obviously) and that is relatively peaceful. This...was less so. Poor baby.

Sister is, thankfully, not upset with me. Hoping that continues. Because honestly, I don't know that I want to pet sit again for quite some time.