This article does not have anything to do with Chinchillas, but as fellow pet owners I am sure you all know how hard it is too lose one of your friends....

 Today I had to put down Mona--my greyhound and good friend.

After a tough battle with cancer we finally knew it was time today when she refused a hamburger.

Mona was the most amazing dog I have ever owned and my first friend and companion when I moved to Massachusetts. The best thing to describe her is that she was a real lady. She never barked and always did her best to keep out of trouble. On the rare, far and few between occasions where she would sneak in the kitchen after a slice of pizza, she was truly embarrassed when we caught her and would even hide when we came home after such an incident.

She would bow gracefully, since greyhounds are unable to do a proper sit position. She had the most expressive eyes I have ever seen in a dog. I could look at her and just know what she wanted, and she had a way of making eye contact and locking eyes with a person until they got it; whether it was a denta bone or a walk.

My husband and I got Mona our first year here while we were living in Lynn. Being an Ohio girl just married and out of college, my transition to a new state was tough, and Lynn is not exactly a prime location to meet other young couples and college grads. Mona was my first real companion. Between looking for “real jobs” I would walk the beach with Mona and play in our garden together. She helped make my transition to a new home and life a lot easier.

 

Mona became our pet when she was four and a half years old. Her racing name was technique and her training name was Monique, we compromised on Mona. She was a retired racing dog and had spent her first four years of life as a work animal, racing on dog tracks and eating raw meat. As a rescue used to spending much of her time crated, she had adjustments to make to her new life. When we first got Mona she had no idea how to climb stairs and wasn’t quite sure how rugs and grass were any different. Ooops!  Fortunately she was a smart pup and caught on very quickly. But her crate life was over. We purchased her an extra large crate as the greyhound society told us it would make her transition to being a pet easier, but she refused to go back to being crated. Our first attempt at crating her was a disaster. She cried the entire time we were out of the house, and the next and final attempt was even worse--she chewed the bars of her crate until her gums bled and punctured her hind leg trying to escape. This being a cage built for a bull mastiff, a much larger breed of dog, we figured it was her way of saying no way never again--from then on out Mona always had a comfy extra large dog bed and plush blankets.

Our move to Salem was a win-win situation. There were more people for me to connect with and a wonderful dog park for Mona to meet new friends and run off leash! One of my very good friends from Ohio, Jessi, also moved to the area and brought her dog Lola who quickly became Mona’s best friend. Once a week we would hang out while our dogs had a play day. 

 

Mona and I had a lot of fun together. She was an amazingly mellow dog and was the laziest creature I have ever met. I had to get her really rowled up to play with her squeaky toys and talk her into jumping on the bed and racing through the house with me.

“Where’s that crrrazy tail Mona?” “Outside!” “Get that leash!” “Want to go on an adventure?” “Breakfast!” “Dinner!” “Treat!” and “Bed-time!” were a few of the phrases that she totally understood.

If anyone ever tells you that greyhounds need to run all the time I would honestly beg to differ. My experience with Mona was that she was a complete couch potato and total wuss when it came to roughing it. There were many a camping trip that Mona ended up sleeping between my husband and me because she was chilly or scared even with her own bed and blankies! She would give us this look like, “did you know that there is dirt under this thin tent thing? Tell me this is SOOO not our new home!” But honestly she loved being a part of everything.

 

She loved people and other dogs (as long as they were not tiny yippy dogs that ran under her belly and jumped on her all the time) and the maintenance men at my townhouse knew her on a first name basis! She really enjoyed adventures like car rides, hikes at Breakheart reservation, picking out treats at the pet food stores, walking the beach, hanging out in downtown Salem, going on vacations to Lola’s place and “getting our nails done;” hers trimmed, mine painted -- except Halloween when Mona and her hot pink nails were a big hit at our party in Salem. This Halloween she was a hula girl.

 

 

 

 

In October we noticed a small pea sized red bump on Mona’s side near her hind leg. At first I thought it must be a cyst, but after a week it began to look a little bigger and a lot redder, so we decided to get it checked out. At this time Loa also had a scare with cancer that ended up just being a nasty cyst.  The vet did a cell scrapping and said she would contact us as soon as she had the results back. By the time the results had arrived, less than 2 weeks later, the bump had grown to the size of a large marble. When she had surgery that same month it was the size of a small apple.

Greyhounds are naturally thin with tight skin and removing that large of a mass was concerning for the vet who was also surprised at the rapid growth of the mast cell tumor. Mona had also started to get irritated with the knot on her side and was constantly licking and chewing at it.

Before Election Day, Mona had surgery to remove the growth. The surgery went well…but not great. Mona was in a lot of pain and had several stitches and staples in her side. The vet warned us that the wound reopening was a possibility and gave us an emergency number in case this was to happen.

Unfortunately, at the time of her surgery, I had committed to a trade show with work and was scared to make the surgery appointment any later since the growth was expanding rapidly. After the first night of the Ad Tech tradeshow in New York City and hearing about Mona’s pain and discomfort from my husband I cut my trip short and drove back to help take care of our sick pup.

The first few days and nights were tough. Mona, a typically quiet dog ( I never heard her back at anyone or anything) would cry out in her sleep and was visibly in pain. We kept her on her pain medication to ease the pain and antibiotics to fend off infection. She was healing up, but slowly. We were happy our dog was “getting better” and thought that we had caught everything in time. A few days later our vet contacted us with the results of the full biopsy on the removed tumor to tell us that unfortunately Mona had a very aggressive mast cell tumor that likely had spread to the rest of her body. Our only option was chemo.

Chemo is dangerous and with her low weight and hard time through surgery we decided it was not the best option for our friend.

After her surgery things began to go downhill quickly. Mona had extremely bad stomach issues and suffered from explosive diarrhea. It quickly became apparent that Mona was losing weight fast and no longer getting nutrients from her food. She had to be walked shortly after fed and could no longer go more than a few hours without a walk. My husband and I played cleanup crew and rented the rug doctor many times I felt they owed us a free one. But we managed, and kept from showing our frustration. Mona was our friend and companion and she was sick.

We contacted the vet regarding Mona’s stomach problems and began a new set of antibiotics and diet. MEAT! Mona and my husband were both so psyched to have steakums in the house! I don’t eat red meat so it was a great treat for them both. My husband would make himself and Mona burgers in the evening. Mona was so happy to have real meat that her teeth would chatter while we were cutting up her burgers. She also had protein rich dog ice cream and rice to bulk her up. Between her visits with her buddy Lola and tasty new diet, Mona was loving life and her new spoiled and pampered existence!

The vet had anticipated that after 48 hours we should see a change in Mona’s diarrhea and she should become more consistent…48 hours later there was no change. We contacted our very nice veterinarian to tell her that we had not seen a change. After finishing the entire two-week supply of medication Mona was still one sick pup with terrible explosive diarrhea and had begun to show signs or dehydration and weight loss. When we took her in to be checked out by the vet she had already lost 5 lbs.

She soon lost interest in her dry kibble and the meat and protein rich dog “ice cream” were the only things she was really interested in eating. Over a month had gone by and she was still losing weight and energy but very happy and showing no visible signs of discomfort. She slept in her dog bed in our bedroom most nights and would wake us if she really had to go. She would pant and stare at us from across the room. This was the signal that she could no longer wait and we better get up. Again she was a lady to the end not wanting to make a mess if at all possible.

The last few days she began vomiting and having terrible stomach contractions. The vet told us that if she should quit eating entirely…we should let her know. Mona eventually turned down her steakums and we knew it was time.

Mona always loved snow. We would put her greyhound coat on to keep her warm, which is a lot like a horse coat, and she would prance through the snow while we walked. For a breed that is sensitive to extreme weather I always thought it was unique. Today was the first real snowstorm we had this year. And Mona had one final romp through the snow. We pet her wet fur and said our goodbyes. She was a lady, a friend, a yeah-mona-yeah. It’s hard not to look at the clock and realize there’s no reason, she doesn’t need to go out right now. And looking at her bed, and her leash, and knowing there is no more, and no chance to go get her back, it’s going to be hard not to have her there, doing nothing. Tomorrow is almost here, but it won’t have Mona. I keep looking at her pictures, and we have so many pictures of her, and I’m so upset, that I think when I get to the end of them all, Mona’s life ends, too. And maybe that’s why this little article keeps getting longer and longer.

Mona was loved, and we will miss her. She wasn’t a dog. She was our family.