It was September 2005, right after hurricane Katrina, and I had just returned from spending a week rescuing animals in New Orleans. When I arrived home I announced to Buddy (my husband)that we needed to adopt another dog to make room for the homeless pets filling the shelters all over the south. He reluctantly agreed but was soon excited about adding another family member. I had always wanted a Golden and when we adopted our last dog we had intended to adopt one, but fell in love with Dino a Lab/Golden mix. This time I was determined that we were getting a Golden! We set out on a Sunday afternoon to Golden Retriever Rescue of Atlanta adoption day where we had adopted our Dino. There were what seemed like dozens of dogs, some young, some older and some already had adopters. We walked around looking at the different dogs and all of the sudden there he was: flattened out on the floor like a Seal! It was this 6 month old Chocolate Lab/Mutt dog. I got down on the floor and he started giving me kisses and trying to get in my lap. Buddy and I looked at each other and immediately knew he was going home with us. We talked with the foster mom for a while and she invited us to come to her house so we could see him interact with her dogs and complete the adoption paperwork. She warned us over and over that he had a lot of energy and that he was stubborn, but still very sweet. She knew Diggs needed just the right home or he would be coming back to her. We would soon learn why!
Our other two dogs were initially not happy with our choice! But, within a few days Dino was dragging Diggs around the house with a toy in his mouth. It was very cute! Diggs was into everything and the first week he jumped off the back deck and slightly tore his ACL. We took him to the vet where they quoted us $3000 to fix it or we could just rest him and see if it healed on it's own. We took option two and he healed within a few weeks. Diggs was more like a goat than a dog. He would eat anything that didn't eat him first.... money, remotes, anything too close to the edge of the counter, sticks, rocks, flowers, if you can name it I'm sure Diggs has eaten it. His favorite thing was Papaya and we never got to eat a whole one if he was in the room when we were cutting it. The minute you turned your back he would grab it and out the door he went. It was good for him so we would just laugh and realize it was our fault for not watching him.
After Katrina, I founded Georgia Humane Society and we started fostering dogs. This was great for Diggs because he loved all other animals. He would play with them no matter their size and he was always gentle even though he was over 100 lbs. He would teach them how to belong to a pack and how to get over being abused with love and kindness. There were many fosters that came through our house in the 5 1/2 years that Diggs was with us and he never failed to welcome each one of them as if they belonged here forever. We will always be grateful for the kindness and patience he showed to other animals no matter what they had been through before coming to our home.It was late in the evening in October last year and Diggs came in the house limping. We could tell he was in pain and suspected he had torn his ACL again. I would call our vet the next morning and take him in to confirm it. We arrived at the vet and they confirmed that it was his knee so they referred us to a specialist to get x-rays and decide on surgery. We really didn't want Diggs to go through such an invasive procedure and it was going to be a major challenge to keep him down for two months to recover. We had a lot going on at the time and needed to plan for something this major. We have stairs in our house and going down to the back yard. Diggs is not a leash walker, he will drag you down the street, even with one leg not functioning. We decided to move him to the first floor of the house and gate off all of the stairs. We put him on anti-inflammatory medication and started resting him in hopes that it would heal on it's own or at least buy us time while we made a plan for his surgery and recovery. He seemed to get better as the weeks passed but in late January he began to not use his leg at all, it was time to see the specialist. We weren't going to avoid surgery.
We found a vet in Calhoun, GA that could do the surgery and even though it was a 2 1/2 hour drive it was worth the savings. The vet had done this surgery for 25 years so we knew we were in good hands. On February 3rd, me and Diggs drove to Calhoun and I checked him in at the clinic. I would spend the night in a hotel and take him home the next day. I waited by the phone for the call that he was out of surgery and recovering. The call came and it was not what I expected...Diggs had cancer. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and that my 6 year old boy had terminal cancer. The vet asked me to come to the clinic so I could look at the x-rays. I was there in 10 minutes and it was soon obvious that it was true. I asked the vet how long we had and he said 6 months to 1 year. Now, I had to break it to Buddy that our beautiful Diggs was dying. He immediately started researching on the internet for natural and nutritional cures for cancer. We tried everything but nothing was going to save him. I'm glad we didn't know in October, because we were able to enjoy those last few months with him. If we had known then we would have grieved for all of those months. Diggs was like velcro with me everyday after we returned from Calhoun. I was his caretaker and made sure he got his pain meds and was eating what he needed. I could see he was going down hill really fast and I told Buddy to start preparing. On Friday, February 25th we spent our last day with Diggs. I knew he was in severe pain and he stayed under Buddy's desk for most of the day. I kept checking on him to see if he was improving but he wasn't so I called the vet to bring him in. We suspected he might have bloat so they told us to come right away. They took x-rays and within 5 minutes called us in to see what they had found. The cancer was taking over his lungs and there was nothing more we could do for him. He was starting to suffer and we had agreed in the beginning to not allow him to suffer. We made the painful decision to let him go even though we weren't ready. Diggs had always lived his life on his terms and we had to honor him by letting him leave us and have peace. He will always be a huge part of our lives and we will miss him everyday.
