TAF was contacted about a dog in need at our local shelter. The bulldog had a wobbly gait and seemed to be shutting down. We went to meet her, named her Agnes, and headed to the vet. Once at the vet, it was very obvious that our girl was completely deaf and had been bred many, many times. She had some very abnormal bloodwork, and her neurological exam was also abnormal. Ultrasounds and x-ray's showed nothing obvious, so the vet's advised that Agnes was most likely suffering from a brain tumor. The tumor probably led to her being deaf, her sunken in head, her wobbly gait as well as the way she swung her head from side to side. Agnes also suffered from some skin problems that often left bald patches.
Amazingly, despite all of her medical issues, Agnes was extremely happy, friendly, loved other dogs and was completely house trained. At this point, we knew Agnes was going to be a hospice dog until her quality of life started to suffer. A friend of TAF adored our squishy, friendly bulldog and offered to foster her. Agnes loved the other three dogs in the house, and quickly became a regular at daycare, at training class, and all over town. She even passed her Canine Good Citizen test!
Over a year later, Agnes started to show signs of slowing down. She was sleeping a lot, began to appear disoriented, and her gait was more and more wobbly. She fell down a few times and couldn't figure out how to get up. We all knew her disease had progressed, and her loving foster mom gave her an amazing week of fun, love, cheeseburgers and ice cream (her favorite!) Agnes passed in the arms of the best mom she had ever known.
We are extremely grateful that we had Agnes with us for as long as we did. She had a great year and we hope it made up for the years of neglect and abuse she suffered earlier in her life. We are indebted to her foster mom Natalie for all the love she gave to our girl. She was one in a million!
