NIKITA BOBITA

On Tuesday, October 17th, 2006, at 7:30am our 7 (almost 8) year old boxer named Nikita died. She had been sick for about the last 10 days. It just started out as coughing, or trying to get something out of her throat. Then she started to cough up blood when we went to the vet. He didn't know what it was. He gave her some antibiotic and some prednisone to knock out whatever was ailing her. It didn't work. By Friday night, she was bad. Stopped eating and not drinking anything really. Stopped peeing. Just laying down breathing hard. I felt so sorry for her. Because I have asthma, I know what a struggle it can be to breathe. I prayed every night those last few days for God to just come and take her. I didn't want her to be suffering anymore. We had even taken her to the emergency vet place over the weekend. They wanted to keep her overnight and give her oxygen and some other meds, but it would cost $800 to do that. We just don't have that kind of money. So, we took her home to be with us. We had planned to take her to the vet on Monday and see what they wanted to do. Either try new medicine or suggest putting her down. I knew in my heart she was close to the end. Monday night I almost slept on the kitchen floor with her. I knew. I just knew. When J came downstairs that morning, she wagged her tail at him. I will never forget how miserable she looked but still wagged that tail. He was comforted by that. He went to move her from in front of the garage door so he could leave and he put her by the deck door. When he went to set her down, she couldn't stand on her legs. She collapsed and then started to heave and go into mini convulsions. He hollered at me to come to the kitchen (I was headed back upstairs as he moved her). I knew it was time by the tone in his voice. Oh no. Not my Nikita! I hollered for K to come down and be with her. When her bladder let go I knew it was really close to the end. I ran over to the school to get L from math class. I was bawling my head off and still in my PJ's. We got back over to the house just in time for L to say goodbye before it was over. We all cried together as we knelt over her. J held her head in his lap. She was his favorite. He covered her up with some blankets (we will never forget which ones they are as we use them all the time anyway.)
I took the girls to school (they wanted to go) and J was making calls to work. When I got home, our other boxer, Sasha, had uncovered Nikita's head from underneath the blanket and was laying by her side. It was such a sad, loving moment. I will never forget it. We had her cremated and are looking for a special memorial/urn to put her in. I have cried every night since she's been gone and I still think I hear her around the house sometimes. I know she will always be with us and we will see her again one day in Heaven... Rest in peace Nikita Bobita. Rest in peace.