10/10/2023
‼️ TRIGGER WARNING ‼️
I cannot believe I’m having to share this.
5:30am September 21 2023 our world flipped upside down. It was only my 3rd week back to work after maternity leave and what was suppose to be a normal work morning/day turned into something so traumatic I’ll never forget. I wake up early to pump (I’m breastfeeding) and I go down stairs to get my equipment and noticed only one dog sleeping on the couch.. which isn’t 100% abnormal but for some reason I just knew something was off.. I started calling for Louie and he didn’t come up.. I went to the basement and got a glance that he was laying in his kennel (he loved his kennel and to just lay in there) but again he wasn’t coming out.. I go to touch him.. and he’s gone.. gone from us and our world forever.
I was SHOCKED. I fell to the ground sobbing out of fear, shock, sadness, anger. trying my best to wake up dalton while he’s in bed with our son.. once he finally gets up and hears what I just experienced he ran down stairs - also in disbelief. We then spent the next hour sobbing, confused, shocked - all the emotions. I knew I couldn’t go to work that day, I just needed to get my son to school and deal with what was next…
At the time, all we knew that he was dealing with some skin infection on his nose which we found out the day before that it came back being an E. coli infection - he was eating p**p - go figure 💩😅
Looking back now, he was also sick for about 3 days leading up to that day. Monday & Tuesday he was a little down energy wise but didn’t flag our attention. Wednesday I was home and he was very lethargic, he ate breakfast and dinner fine but in the middle of the day he puked and peed in the dining room - not uncommon for him but the amount was and the way he was acting was not normal. I told myself I was going to bring him to work with me the next day if he was still not feeling welll… but he never made it through the night..
We are SO over the moon thankful his vet offered to go a necropsy(autopsy) to see if she can get us any answers as to why he passed so sudden. And she sure did… what we thought happened was maybe his E. coli infection spread and maybe started having organs necrotic because it wasn’t treated in time… or his pancreas was shutting down as he has EPI going on 6 years now.. but nope none of that… this guy has an enlarged left side heart.. and essentially died of heart failure !?? WHAT!?? To say we were SHOCKED yet again is an understatement. I’m thankful we have a reason and some closure but it opens more doors of confusion and question.
He never once showed signs of heart problems - he had just been seen the week before and two other times within that month and the doctors didn’t hear any heart issues during physical exam. He would still bolt out the back door and go run along the fence with the neighbor dog, he would swim and run as long as you let him without showing us one sign or symptoms of heart problems. I feel guilty of not knowing but also how were we suppose to know if he gave us no indication!?
This was mine and daltons first baby.. he just turned 7 in august and had so much more life to live.. if you know us or know Louie, you know we turned our life around to accommodate him into our everyday lives. He was a handful, but he was our handful and we would have made it work another 7+ years.
I miss my boy so much. Our house feels so lonely and quiet without him. Hug your loved ones tight, give big kisses because tomorrow is never promised.
You will forever be missed and loved by all. I know my brother welcomed him into heaven at the gates with arms wide open and a ball in hand. He loved dogs and I know he’ll love on Louie until I can meet him again.
We love you so much Louie Klaseus 🤍 you’ll NEVER be forgotten 🐾
