Molly the Invincible

Molly and Me, originally uploaded by drtaxsacto.

This morning we had to put our dog of the last 10 1/2 years down. We've written about Molly before. She was a unique dog.

She actually chose us. In 1995 we decided to get a puppy. Emily was going to college and so we went out to West Sacramento to a place that had golden retreiver puppies. We sat on the front lawn and one of the little fur balls crawled up into Emily's lap. That was that.

She had a spirit that inspired me greatly. When she was a puppy she had two incidents with a skin problem that required her to be shaved clean. Both times she was a pathetic fur ball without fur. But she kept the spirit.

We took her to puppy obedience school and some rat bag dog snipped at her - so she was always cautious around other dogs. She and I began to do walks. I developed a new group of friends in the neighborhood who knew Molly and me but no one else. When others in the family walked her (when I was away) they were always asked where is Jon? She had an amusing habit of picking out one or two dogs that walked in the opposite circuit and being very fierce - except, of course, when she was off the leash.

She only learned one trick. That was to take a dog bone on her nose, flip it up and then catch it in her mouth. I tried other tricks but she simply refused. One was enough.

About five years ago we noticed a mass on her left rear leg. She began to limp and so we took her to UC Davis where they operated and then tried radiation to eliminate what turned out to a mast cell tumor. (very common in Goldens) The treatments took a lot out of her- both the surgery and the radiation. But as time kept going she began to recover. You could see her constantly trying to extend her walk a little bit each day.

Then last Spring she developed a limp in her front paw. We again tried a bunch of stuff and after a great deal of agony we again went to Davis and after a series of tests decided to amputate the leg. It was a sarcoma. The prognosis was not good but we decided that it was the best alternative. We visited her soon after the surgery. She wimpered and was in real pain. It was a horrible sight. We stayed with her for about an hour and then took her home the next day. When we left her the first night (only to come back the next day) she whined pitifully. The first night she was home she was clearly weak. She wimpered in pain - but constantly tried to show her spirit. But over the next several months she began to recover. We were able to go back to the dog park in our neighborhood.

Molly loved the dog park. She was adept before her surgery at catching a frisbee. Even after she lost the leg she would make a good attempt at playing frisbee. It was a good way for us to communicate. Even without one front paw she would occasionally make a heroic catch - leaping into the air to nab the frisbee. But what she really liked about the dog park was not that or the other dogs but introducing herself to all the other people at the park. People were really her main mission. Over the summer she slowed down a bit, became less interested in running but still loved to meet the people.

A couple of weeks ago she began to show a limp in the rear leg that she had had the mast cell on. We took her back to the vet. She recommended we do some incremental steps. But nothing seemed to work. Then last night about one am Pete noticed that the leg had broken. We took her to the emergency vet and found that her leg indeed had a compound fracture and more importantly that the leg looked like swiss cheese around the break. The vet in the emergency room said that looked like cancer.

So we took her home one last time. She slept in my home office again and I stayed with her to make sure she was comfortable. Then this morning we went back to her regular vet, confirmed the situation and decided that it was impossible to guarantee any quality of life for her.

Officially Molly was Peter's dog but she was really a member of the family. Each of had our roles with her. I walked her. Peter sneaked her biscuits each night. She also preferred to sleeep in his room. Quinlan took her to the vet most often. She was often Mason's protector. And Emily, even though she did not live here during Molly's tenure, was her occasional friend. All of us, except Emily who lives in LA, were with her when she expired. Jessica, Peter's fiance was there too. She ws always there for our important events. A constant warm presence whenever we came home regardless of the events of the day. She was always ready for a walk. When she decided that one of us was not paying enough attention she would nudgle up to that person and bring us back to the basics. She had a wonderful relationship with her vet. She was, except for today when she clearly was in pain, eager to go to the vet - it was another chance to see people - all sorts of people. And the vet and her staff loved Molly.

Molly was a wonderful part of our family. But what she taught us about spirit and love will stay with me forever.