Maxie *EDIT*

I realize that’s a picture you’ve seen before if you’ll been following my diary awhile.  I put it up there to remind you of which dog I’m going to be talking about.   Maxie is a 12 year old Golden Retriever.  As a general rule, goldens live 12-15 years.  In the last few weeks, Maxie has been eating less.  We thought she was just being a pain in the butt – not wanting to miss anything downstairs, which would be why she’d eat half of her food and then come back downstairs.  But to make sure everything’s okay, my mom took her to the vet today and dropped her off.  The vet took blood and looked at her gums.  Apparently her gums show some kind of anemia.  The vet also said that when a golden’s appetite decreases at her age, it’s generally not a good sign.  In any case, the results of the blood test will be back tomorrow.  From the way the vet talked, it sounds like he expects something to show up on the blood test.  My parents aren’t the type to spend thousands of dollars on a dog.  It would be more likely that if something bad came up on the blood test, we wouldn’t do anything until the time came where her quality of life was compromised and then we’d put her down.  Even if that blood test comes out okay, the day that we have to put her down is coming sooner rather than later.  And even thinking about that day makes me want to cry.  I grew up with her – we got her when I was 11.  I’m 23 now.

*Edit*

Apparently Maxie got my parents up in the middle of the night, needing to go to the bathroom.  When my dad told me that this morning, my first question was, "Since when does Maxie get you guys up in the middle of the night" and my dad responded with a look and said "She doesn’t."  Both of my dogs have been known to get my parents up around 5:30 or 6 (my parents usually get up and get moving around 5:15) if they think my parents aren’t moving fast enough.  It’s good that Maxie can still realize she’s gotta go to the bathroom and hold it long enough to go outside….but the fact that she can’t hold it all night anymore is concerning, especially combined with the vet visit yesterday.