Crazy, Busy, Happy: A Man's Best Friend

Cody Bear

July 2005 - January 2015

"Dogs are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole"

Sadly, while we were away in Florida, we lost our Cody Bear to the evil doer - cancer. We were shocked and devastated!

Since a "little" puppy Cody has had random tumors/growths. Most would come and go. He would regularly get them checked and they always came back that they were just growths, not cancerous. As he got older the growths were appearing more and starting to grow in places that would annoy anyone! A couple years ago he had a growth on his 'behind' (the word used in our house!) that he obviously got irritated by and had removed. Not cancerous and recovered beautifully! Cody continued to grow small tumors though out his body: his paws, his sides, the sides of his legs, but nothing major and most would disappear after so long. His recent growth was the hardest to manage and in the end the sign that was showing us Cody's tumor growths were getting worse. This growth was located on his scrotum. It started off small and we had it checked as soon as we noticed it. Our vet said that at the time it didn't look serious and something that is common since Cody wasn't fixed and getting up there in age. We continued to monitor it. As time was going on the growth was growing and it finally got to the point where it split opened and was becoming infected. We set up a surgery to have it removed and ultimately have Cody fixed (poor guy, 9 years old and loosing his manhood), but we knew it was for the best! We had some tests done to see what the growth was, that test came back fine - just another growth that got out of control. The surgery was set and we had a pre-op scheduled - because of Cody's age and the monitoring of the growth the vet wanted to make sure as the surgery date came closer Cody would handle it alright. All things were a go, but our vet wanted to test the growth once more - not the news we wanted! Cancer. Cody's tumor was cancerous. (Insert tears running down my face) Our two minute appointment just turned into an hour of crying. The vet actually closed while I was there (alone - Francis was out of town and the kids were with Nana and Papa). I CANNOT (repeat CANNOT) thank the vet enough for the kindness they shared through all of this!!! Cody has gone to this location since he was a puppy. While I was devastated by this news and knowing because of Cody's age the outcome was not going to be good, the vet actually sat on the floor with me and let me be sad and tried to comfort me the best he could. Because of Cody's size it was extremely difficult to tell if he had internal tumors unless we traveled miles to have certain scans done. After loooonnnnngggg talks Francis and I decided to go ahead with the surgery and hope it gave us more time with our first baby. Cody had surgery December 16. He did well, came home and recovered great. We were so happy we did the the surgery! We were starting to get our old Cody back - more active and not so lethargic. As weird as this sounds we were so excited when he started jumping back in our bed to sleep with us! Because of the location of the tumor, Cody was finding it difficult to go up the stairs or jump on the furniture. Most his days were spent laying next to the fire place in a pile of pillows on the floor. He was our Cody Bear again! Unfortunately, that was shortly celebrated. One Saturday morning we could hear Cody stumbling around the living room (hardwood floors and a large dog = not so quiet!), he finally made his way up to our room and struggled to get on our bed. Francis (got out of bed and) picked up and put him in our bed. Cody snuggled in between us like usual but his breathing was sooooo slow and sounded awful. It was labored, he was struggling. We got up and went to let him outside - he couldn't stand. We called the vet and had him seen immediately. We were told that the cancer was spreading internally and more and likely aiming at his hips and groin area. This was the day before we were suppose to leave for Florida. Do we cancel, do we continue with our plans but leave Cody with the vet? (In the 9 1/2 years that Cody graced us with his existence we never boarded him. He either went with us or stayed with friends and family) Our vet thought with the medication Cody would be stable and more comfortable if we kept with our plans and left him with our friend and his dog who he was use to. We thought we would make our final decision in the morning whether we would go or not. After being on the meds for 24 hours Cody perked right up. We thought we had the green light! We dropped him off with a great friend (who I don't think we could ever repay for having to go through all of this) and said our goodbyes. We had no idea it was our last. We stayed in constant contact with our friend, checking in to make sure Cody was doing okay. After the first two days things started looking bad. Cody wasn't walking and crying constantly. Our friend was also in constant contact with the vet trying to make sure he was making Cody comfortable (once again, how do you thank someone for this?!??!). On Wednesday, after a horrible night, a decision was made that Cody needed to go in. We were in contact with the vet and he let us know that the Cody he saw just a few short days earlier was not the Cody he was looking at. He took a horrible turn, the cancer was taking over and Cody was in so much pain. We of course let the vet know we would change out flight plans and fly out right away - he (as nice as he could) let us know that Cody wouldn't make it to the evening so if we changed our flight there was no way we would have made it back. While on the phone with the vet Francis could hear Cody crying in the background - we knew it was time. He was a huge light in our lives and we could not make him suffer any longer just so we could (possibly) get home.

It was SUPER weird coming home from a long stay away and not have his huge face greet us at the door, or his tail slapping us in the face as we bent down to take our shoes off. To be honest, we didn't want to come home - when we got off the plane we had no rush to get back to an empty house and tried to find things to help delay us. We notice him missing more so in the evenings when the kids go to bed. That was his one on one time with us, mostly spent snuggling on the couch. Kynzley still talks about him being her best friend. They were the biggest buddies! Her teachers even commented on how much she talks about her Cody Bear. She told us that she is going to miss buying him gifts and snuggling in her bed. We are sad that Benton isn't going to know Cody like we did but oooff there are so many pictures and memories that he will feel like he grew up with him :)

Fun & Memorable Cody facts:

- Only 'child' that I have ever let sleep in our bed

- Huge (pun intended) lap dog

- Hated vegetables

- Would only drink out of his water dish once and then you would have to put fresh water in it

- Would not eat unless someone was in the same room as him

- Not a fan of watching affection - if Francis and I would hug/kiss, Cody would bark and push between us (how we have two children sometimes surprises us ;) )

- Would let Kynzley walk him and he would not tug on on the leash

- People were always amazed when they came to the door and eventually a dog would show himself because he doesn't back

- LLLOOOVVVEEED being around people

- attention hog

- could empty a room with him farts

- You could pull food/toy out of his mouth without it fazing him

- So laid back

- laid on his back for all dogs - especially smaller ones

- When Benton was born, Cody really teamed up with Kynzley (slept more in her room, followed her more around the house)

- Scared of storms

- When he's gotten out of the yard people have welcomed him in because he's so friendly

We could not have asked for a better pup! Cody is going to be sooooo missed! We want to thank everyone for being a part of his life and especially thank the people who were with Cody at the end. I don't think we could ever thank you enough!!!!!

He was literally in Francis's pocket

One morning Kynzley stole a pancake and headed to the basement without me knowing. I proceeded to make breakfast and while were were all eating I was surprised Cody wasn't sitting next to the table, when I looked in the basement this is what I found. Kynzley did not tell Cody he could have her pancake so he left it - waiting to be told ok :)