Return: Dog Trouble

The New Times continues publishing the diaries of the famous journalist Masha Slonim, who went into exile for the second time*

After all, knowledgeable people told me: buy veterinary insurance for your animals, in England veterinary services are expensive. I even looked at the websites of insurance companies, counted. Four dogs and two cats. Minimum £50 per month. And this is without drugs, which are very expensive here. Even for a prescription, the veterinarian takes 20 pounds, and without a prescription in online veterinary pharmacies, where it is cheaper than in a veterinary clinic, you cannot order medicine.

Veterinary insurance, like any insurance, is a roulette. You pay, you pay, and nothing, thank God, happens. And you try to save money, hoping that nothing will happen, and here it is, it happened. Of course, when it happens, you don’t think about money, that is, you think, of course, but this is not your first thought.

Happened - with Sunny, our oldest dog, who is 12 years old. She was diagnosed with a hormonal disorder that required monthly complex, double and triple blood tests. Without hormone administration, after hormone administration, etc. All this was necessary to determine the correct dose. Determined 4 months. The total bill is over £500. In order not to be upset, I did not go back to insurance sites and see if insurance would pay for such tests. And the medicines that she will have to take every day for the rest of her life. The dose that was determined costs more than 100 pounds a month. Now, of course, it is too late to insure her, the disease has been established, and no insurance can insure retroactively.

But how to insure yourself and your dog from torment if a deadly disease is found in the dog?

Sunny looks at me with his huge brown eyes and asks, “Will you leave me to lick?”

I look at her and think: “Of course, Sunny, whatever you want, and refill, and refill!”

She had already licked my plate, butter dish, and everything that was on the table went to the floor, under her nose.

Now I let Sunny do everything.

Sunny is dying. She doesn't know about it yet. I know. I got the ultrasound results: "Large inoperable tumor of the liver." This is in addition to her hormonal imbalance.

The veterinarians at the clinic are conscientious and honest, they did not give me unnecessary hopes and did not recommend a puncture to determine if the tumor was malignant. What difference does it make if the tumor is inoperable.

I often think about euthanasia, and not only in connection with diseases in dogs. I believe that the animal should be put out of its misery. Thank God it's allowed everywhere. Unlike euthanasia for humans.

I have used euthanasia in the past.

Busya, Sunny's mother and grandmother of all our dogs, was euthanized by my willful decision when her inoperable breast cancer began to torment her beyond measure.

Smiley, Sunny's daughter and the sister of all our dogs, left quietly, from the injection, when the cancer of the same liver no longer allowed her to live normally.

Omar, the most gentle and beautiful Afghan hound, whose kidneys failed as a result of a terrible poisoning, and whom I carried in my arms into the yard to the last ...

Sunny is still interested in life, especially food. She does not yet know that the verdict has been pronounced. And let him not know.

I'll let her lick all the plates.

I will give her whatever her doggy soul desires.

But when the time comes, I will help her to leave calmly and painlessly.

Put to sleep. Let sleep.

* Continuation. Beginning - NT #40 of November 30 and #42 of December 14, 2015. Nos. 1, 3 , 5 , 9 , 11 , 13 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 for 2016.