Sunday, May 27, 2007


~:R U T H I E • G I R L:~

I have some very sad news about Mom's doug Ruthie. Mom and Dad went to Chicago over the weekend and boarded Ruthie and Dad's dog Alice Faye. Ruthie was handed over with specific instructions for a dog with diabetes. Mom pre-loaded all her shots and left them with the kennel. Somewhere along the line, communication about Ruthie's special needs was compromised. Instead of giving Ruthie her shots, they gave them to Alice Faye. I bet both dogs were feeling badly.

Ruthie got sick. So the kennel sent her to a vet hospital WITHOUT her loaded syringes of insulin and without passing on any information about the fact that she had diabetes.

Ruthie died last night. Everyone feels awful. I hate it that she was scared and in pain and was alone, without anyone who loved her to comfort her. I keep thinking that had I been there to visit, I would have caught the error.

Thank goodness, Alice is a large enough dog to not have the insulin she was given harm her. Alice is fine. But we're all hurting today.

Mom got Ruthie shortly after Tommy died, so she was a great deal of comfort to her. She lived for almost 10 years and gave us all a lot of joy, comfort and laughs. She was a good girl. And we will all miss her. We like to think of her in heaven with all the other Dusenberry pets, jumping fences and playing together, waiting for us to return home to play again with them. Gretle, Arthur, Rosemary, Roxie, Gabby, and Ruthie. We love you.

Please spread the word to any pet owners you know and especially to any who board multiple pets. You never can be too careful when trusting their care to someone else. Even the nicest folks with the best intentions can make mistakes.

If you send a comforting word to Mom, I'm sure she'd be grateful.
A little good news is that Dad is really starting to feel better. We can all be grateful for that.

~Anne

5 comments:

minus five said...

dang. that sucks. i'm really sorry. i never would have thought of something like that happening.

Anne Elser said...

I know it. It's so unfair. Kind of horrifyng. I just feel so guilty. We should have kept her here for the weekend.

Mary Campbell said...

I'm so sorry, anne...that is the worst. We just returned from vacation and picked up our babies...I was so happy to see them and feel even more grateful to have them home and safe now. I'll send a prayer to my sweet dog, Cooper who is in heaven and ask him to hang with Miss Ruthie.

Tania Rochelle said...

I remember that Peter used to bring Ruthie to school with him when he was "babysitting" her. Sweet dog--everyone loved her.

Anonymous said...

vets should have some type of "medic alert" tag for pets with these special conditions, so it would be harder for these unfortunate mistakes to happen....poor ruthie.