Is Lucky living or dying?

Today is July 25, 2009 and I can't help but wonder if my pet is living or dying. It's been a very long, life altering 5 months.

My beloved Chocolate Cocker Spaniel, Lucky is very sick. On March 3, 2009 he ate about 6 Sago Palm babies and he's been fighting liver failure ever since. We had no idea the plant was toxic to animals and humans. Before Lucky was born our front yard Sago's had tons of children. We had someone remove them and we planted 10 of them in our backyard. We gave about 30 of them away to friends. At no time did we have any idea this was the wrong thing to do.

Lucky is 5 yrs old. He was born in our home and has lived with his mom (Koko) and his sister (Aly). He was born Febuary 14, 2004 around 10 PM, to a litter of 6. Koko had an ultrasound that showed 5 puppies. Imagine our surprise when Lucky came out, the runt of the litter. He was so tiny. I had to take him out of the sac and cut his cord. It was his mothers first litter and was suppose to be her only litter.

Koko was very spoiled, slept with us all the time and was not too amused that she had to deliver on the floor of our room with paper and towels. She missed the soft sheets. :-) After 10 hrs of labor she started giving birth. All of her puppies were chocolate with one exception. Their was one chocolate and while puppy. This puppy was not doing well and died right away. Another puppy was born dead. So we had 4 puppies and got everyone comfortable in a dog bed on the floor. As soon as we left the room Koko took it upon herself to move her puppies to the middle of the bed. Unfortunately being a new Mom and her puppies being large except Lucky she punctured their lungs. We ran all the puppies to the ER vet right away and to our regular vet the next morning. There was nothing anyone could do. Lucky was so small his skin was hardly punctured so we were told he should make it. Well he did and that's how he got his name. His registered name is Koko's Lucky Boy!

Despite all of Koko's deliver mishaps she turned out to be the best mother. Somehow she understood that picking up and moving the puppies was the wrong thing to do. She and Lucky settled in Koko's kennel on the floor on my side of the bed. I work at home so everyday when she was ready to come out of her kennel and move her puppy somewhere else (she has beds all over the house) she would come upstairs ans bark at me. We would go down and I would take Lucky and follow her to where she wanted to go. We repeated this everyday until he was old enough to follow her. She never again picked him up by the neck as most dogs do. Lucky grew-up to be a very spoiled puppy.

This blog is Lucky's story and his brave fight for life.