Mac-n-Cheese - 16 Years Old

Little Mac-n-Cheese! He was another resident we took in prior to being "official." He was in a Ft Lauderdale shelter. He had been there for a very long time, going back and forth from foster care to shelter care. All we wanted to do was give a donation to the shelter...one discussion led to another, and we knew he had to come home with us. This sweet little guy was a real hot mess. He was more than 15 years old, blind, had hearing loss, and severe dental and skin issues....those were the pawsitive things! He also had neurological issues, kidney and liver issues, seizure disorder, and too many other issues to mention. We were instantly in love.

We were told he probably had a couple months to live, and that he would need to wear a cone for that time since he would chew his skin until he bled. One home we decided to wash his soft cone...no offense, but it smelled really bad! We took the cone off, threw it in the washer, walked back into the room and the little guy had a big bloody hole on his back leg. The shelter was not exaggerating about that skin issue. That is how quickly he chewed himself. We have to give a huge shout out to Dr. Chris Stevens, our wonderful vet who was able to get him to a place where, not only was his skin better, but he was able to be cone free!! He was so happy about that.

His two months turned into three, then four, then five.... sometimes little Mac was a handful. His neurological issues would get worse, then better. Five months turned to six and so on. At nine months his neurological issues slowly got worse, but stopped getting better. His seizures also increased in length, intensity, and frequency. Little Mac-n-Cheese was just a shell of the dog he was. It was clear his quality of life was quickly diminishing. One day little Mac started getting lost in the house, head pressing, and crying loudly. After working with our vet and other specialists we decided the time had come for a peaceful journey over the rainbow bridge. On his last day Mac had a wonderful breakfast of steak, chicken, beef stew, and of course cupcakes! RIP our little Mac. We miss you every day.