Lex

Yesterday started out like any other Sunday. Our Sunday morning routine was no different than any other day. When we got home from church though, we noticed Lex's paws were a yellow green. We couldn't figure out why, but we just assumed it was from the grass. As the day went on we tried different ways to get Lex to eat his food, because he hadn't eaten in days. We had no luck.
At dinner we tried feeding Lex some of our left over steak. He actually ate it! We couldn't believe it. He might actually start eating and get some weight back on him. About an hour later Lex started vomiting up everything. That's why his paws were the yellow green color. He would lay down and need to vomit and would be too weak to move so he would just let it out on his paws. As yesterday progressed Lex just seemed to get worse and worse.
That after we discovered he'd been throwing up he continued to dry-heave. When he'd do this it was loud and if you saw him you would just feel so awful because he just looked like he was in so much pain, and there was nothing we could do.
Eventually we just let him outside and left him out there so we wouldn't have anymore vomit to clean up. I kept walking out every couple of minutes to check on him and he was just sitting along the side of the house. At this point his breathing was horrible. I just wanted to cry for him when I heard him breath because it was so pained.
After much checking on him I went out one more time and couldn't find him. I asked my Dad if he'd let him back in the house and he'd informed me that he was in the corner by the front fence. I went over there to check on him and I knew he wouldn't be with us much longer. His breathing had gotten way worse and he just seemed like he wasn't there.
I tried to get him to look at me or at least acknowledge me but he just stared straight ahead and wouldn't move. I then just said my goodbyes. I knew when I woke up that he wouldn't be here then I went inside and hid away in my room and bawled. A couple minutes later I got called downstairs for scripture study. I tried to hide any evidence that I was crying and went downstairs.
Before we starting reading my Mom and Niles went out to look at Lex and they came in crying. Susie asked my Mom why she was crying and she told us all that she didn't think Lex would make it through the night either. Then the hysterics started. Emma started bawling and ran outside along with everyone but myself.
A couple minutes later they all came in crying and Susie was carrying him into his room. He was so limp when she carrying him. He was alive but very weak. My Dad then called the vet to see if it would be possible to bring him in. It was so we carried Lex out to the car and my Dad, Susie and Emma hurried off to the vet, while my Mom, Niles and I waited to hear the news.
A while later my dad called to inform us that he might have possible liver problems. If that were the case there was nothing we could do. But it wasn't definite yet. My Dad called again a couple minutes later and told us that Lex had severe diabetes and all of his organs were slowly failing. He was going to die and we could take him home and let him just suffer till he died or put him to sleep. We put him to sleep to put him out of his misery.
While we waited for everyone to come home my Mom, Niles and I began to dig a hole in the back yard at 10:45 pm. It took about an hour for my Dad and Jeff to finally finish the hole. When it was finished those who wanted to see Lex one more time could. The vet had wrapped him in a blanket and put him in a box. I don't usually like seeing dead bodies. I hate viewings because 1. They're extremely sad and I hate crying in front of people and 2. Dead bodies creep me out. But I wanted to see Lex one more time. My Dad opened the box and uncovered Lex's face. He looked so peaceful. They positioned him in the box the exact way that he slept. To my surprise I even pet him one last time. If I didn't know any better I would have thought he was  just sleeping. I'm glad I got to see him one last time though because he hasn't looked that peaceful in a long time.
It took us all a while to finally fall asleep last night because we couldn't stop crying. I sure are going to miss that fat, hairy, loud, fun, silly dog. I'll miss the way he'd bark relentlessly every time we said a prayer and how he'd wine very loudly if we tried to hold him still during the prayer. I'll miss how he'd bark and scare every person who came to the door. I'll miss coming home and finding him asleep on my bed. I'll miss having to go look for our shoes in Susie's room because he'd always take them in there. I'll miss playing hide-and-go-seek with him. I'll miss having to lint-roll myself before I went anywhere because I was covered in his dog hair. I'll miss him coming and whining at us because he wanted to be loved on. I'll miss everything about this Lex.

 I sure loved this fatty.

 He's trying to kill Susie's fish. He was so protective of Susie.

He was our families first ever dog. He was all of our friends. And I'll never forget him. I'm just happy he's not in pain anymore. And sorry if you think this post was morbid or annoying. Everyone's probably thinking "It's just a dog". But I just wanted to post this for me so that I'd remember. Anyways, have a nice day.