We lost Roscoe 5 days ago

We lost Roscoe 5 days ago and my life is a mess.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault, though i have trouble telling myself that several times a day.

Last Sunday I took him to Norms Island for a nice long walk, it was a little messy, a little icy, but nothing out of the ordinary for a late February day in Montana.

It wasn’t until the next morning that we knew something was wrong. A little limp, his left rear leg was bothering him and we couldn’t figure out why, it wasn’t his paw, a thorn, nothing felt wrong. The next morning even though he was still limping a little he chased a rabbit on the morning walk.......he’s fine, just a little stiff we told ourselves.

Wednesday morning he was still favoring the leg so we called the Vet. Friday at 2pm was when we could get him in......so all of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, morning/afternoon and evening walks all went with just a little limp.

“You need to prepare yourselves”

We made it to the Vet with no issues, i picked him up in and out of the car in usual fashion, walked in and waited for our turn. The Tech that got us into the exam room checked everything and commented on his adorable pup pics and that he still looked like the photo from 11 years ago, we’re quite proud of how well he has aged and get comments all the time about how he looks much younger than he is.....EXERCISE.....and lots of it. After a few moments of waiting the Vet came in and took him with her to do a more detailed exam and range of motion check. She came back and said he wouldn’t let her move his leg but she couldn’t pinpoint the problem, would we like to have him X-rayed to check for bone issues. We agreed and she took hime back.

We sat and waited, expecting the torn ACL speech when she came back.....but it wasn’t to be.....it was worse.......MUCH worse.

He had been slowing down over the past few years, but his annual exams showed no issues so we just took it easy on him and let him decide if he wanted to run after something or not, walks had gotten quite grueling, he was dis-interested and slow to start, though asking if he wanted to go home for breakfast/Dinner resulted in him perking up and almost running back, so we just assumed his age was getting to him and we just needed to cut out one of the walks and be patient with him. We weren’t expecting what came next.

“You need to prepare yourself” she said as she came back in to show us the X-rays. She described the “moth eaten” appearance of his femur and a clear, severe break. I have no idea how he’s not writhing in pain she told us......its bad...very bad.

Bone cancer was the prognosis, and after thinking about it for the past several days, it makes sense to us, though we wish we would have found it sooner and been able to make him more comfortable.

There was no bone left to repair the break, and later X-rays would show more issues in his other rear leg as well. After a long talk and many tears it was decided he had the best years behind hime and moving forward was not going to be fulfilling for him.

Roscoe passed in my arms late Friday night, March 3rd 2023 after 11 great years of love, cookies, and squirrel chasing. He is sorely missed and we have suffered a sadness I cannot explain, but he’s no longer suffering in silence, he never made a whimper about his broken leg, we had no idea how bad it was....

We Love and miss you Roscoe