I’m at a horse show and my husband called me early this morning. Our son is also out of town and his wife called him totally distraught because she had let their 18 year old dog out late last night and fell back asleep, leaving him in the back yard. She found him dead in the pool. Our son asked that his Dad go over to get the dog out.
Although he wasn’t my dog, I “rescued” him as a puppy and they adopted him into their family. We dog sat many times over the years as well as playing with him in their home. I am so upset that he died alone and scared. I lost my 18+ year old dog 3 years ago and mourn this one in a different way as he didn’t have the quiet loving passing that my dog did.
Of course my daughter in law is devastated. And while her actions did lead to a tragedy, it was a mistake that had horrific consequences. For those who have had something similar happen, how did you deal with it?
I’m so sorry, no advice on how to deal with it.It was a horrible accident and not intentional, I’m sure your daughter in law feels terrible about it, forgive her and allow yourself and her to grieve the loss of the a wonderful dog.
In hindsight, all swimming pools should have safety fences around them, not just to keep kids from wondering in but pets also, it might be something to suggest later on.
I am so sorry for your loss, and I know exactly how your daughter in law feels. My 14 year old dog drowned right in front of me. We had gone to a party at a friend’s farm, and everyone was by the pond. My dog (who loved water and was a fabulous swimmer all her life) was standing at the water’s edge. I was next to her on the dock (merely a step up). I turned to say something to the person on my left, looked back to my right, and glimpsed her hind end and realized she was going under the dock. My immediate thought was that she probably shouldn’t go swimming, and I would put her on a leash when she came out the other side of the dock, which was only about 3’ wide. It had maybe been 3 - 5 seconds from when she was standing next to the water, to when she was floating under the dock out of sight. When she didn’t come out, I jumped in the pond and realized she was floating, and not breathing. I think she either had a seizure or a heart attack (she had been having seizures recently), and slipped into the water, which caused her to drown.
Somehow we resuscitated her, and I took her to the ER vet, where I made the decision to put her down because she had fluid in her lungs, and would have probably died a slow painful death, or had a heart attack.
For your comfort and your daughter in law’s, it was probably fast and not painful. I know we all want to have a peaceful end for our beloved animals, but there is nothing saying that he didn’t. I would never have put my dog through the agony of resuscitation if I had known how painful the next few hours were going to be for her.
