Today would have been our eighth Maggie-versay because we adopted Maggie – our red heeler/kelpie mix – on 30 December 2016.

Photo looking down at a red/brown with big ears looking up at the photographer.

Sadly Maggie didn’t make it to this milestone, passing away at home with the help of the lovely folks at Goodbye Good Boy on the night of 27 December.

What happened?

Maggie loved food. So it was a bit of a surprise when, around the middle of October, she refused to eat her monthly flea and tick medication, and then didn’t finish her dinner that night. When she kept refusing food, we took her to our vet. A couple of tests later we confirmed that she had chronic kidney disease, likely brought on by old age.

When she continued to feel unwell, she was referred to a specialist vet. After some more tests we learned that she also had a urinary tract infection. Fortunately, this infection was quickly treated with antibiotics and she bounced back from feeling miserable in just a day or two.

Chronic kidney disease, however, is incurable. And, depending on what stage the disease is at, you really just have a few weeks to a few months left. You can slow its progress, of course. But, as we discovered, hers was quite advanced.

(She also had a small tumour next to one of her kidneys, which a biopsy showed contained a slow-moving cancer. But given the rest of her diagnosis, that ended up being a non-issue – just like her arthritis, which we kept treating even though we knew it wasn’t going to be an ongoing concern.)

Photo of a Patient Discharge Information folder from Advanced Vetcare, a veterinary specialist centre and 24 hour emergency hospital. Handwritten on the folder in black marker is the name ‘Maggie’ with a little love heart icon drawn after her name.

So what did we do?

Once your pet has received a chronic kidney disease diagnosis, all you can do is take care of them till it’s time for them to go. The HHHHHMM quality of life scale developed by veterinary oncologist Dr Alice Villalobos helps you decide when that time has come.

Maggie was a happy, energetic, stubborn, no-nonsense dog with an insatiable appetite who led a really good life with us, so she made the best of her last few weeks as well. She wasn’t eating much, so she didn’t have as much energy as before. But we stayed home to spend as much time with her as we could, so she hung out with us all the time. We took her for her daily walks, which were the highlight of her day. Even on her last day, we went for a short walk on our street, which she would have happily extended if she hadn’t been feeling so worn out.

But worn out she was. Over a two week period in December her quality of life score dropped from the 50s to the 40s. A score of 35 or more is considered an acceptable quality of life, but it’s best to let your pet go just before they start to get miserable. So on 27 December we made the call.

Maggie had had her daily walk; she’d spent time in the garden, getting pats and cuddles from all of us; and she’d even eaten a bite of beef-steak fat, which was her favourite.

She passed away in her favourite orange, fuzzy bed, asleep and snoring like a champ.

Remembering Maggie through photos

To remember the fabulous years we had with Maggie, here are some photos of her that I haven’t uploaded before.

Maggie’s first walk with us (31 Dec 2016)

Photo of a woman walking a dog in a large public park.

Licking Nadia (2017)

Photo of a woman in a living room, sitting and leaning back on the right-side arm of a black leather sofa. She is holding a red/brown dog in her lap, with the dog stretching-out and raising her head so she can lick the woman’s cheek.

Sleeping between Ameel and Nadia (2019)

Photo of a half-asleep red/brown dog lying in a large bed. The dog is sleeping between the two humans in the bed, with its head on a pillow, while facing the photographer.

Dog with the Pearl Earring (2019)

(I have uploaded a version of this collage before, but this one is better.)

Collage of two photos that have a passing similarity. The one on the left is of a red/brown dog with a yellow bed cover over its head that is covering both its ears. The dog is looking over its left shoulder at the photographer. On the right is a photo of the painting ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Johannes Vermeer. The painting is of a woman wearing a yellow-and-blue turban looking who is looking over her left shoulder at the painter. The woman is wearing what appears to be a very large pearl as an earring.

Cuddles with Nadia, who is just back from the gym (2020)

Photo of a woman in gym gear cuddling a resigned looking red/brown dog on a sofa.

You can find all my published photos of Maggie in the ‘Maggie’ category on this blog (or in the ‘Maggie’ album on my Flickr profile).

End of an era

Maggie’s passing is the end of an era for me and Nadia. We’ve both acquired, raised, and lost dogs before, but that was always with our families. Maggie was our family in Australia, and now we’re one family member short. *sigh*