Bambi the Pug
by Hayley
One afternoon, I noticed Bambi was walking funny. I told my Mum, and together we searched for a tick. We lived near a lot of trees and bushes, so ticks were a common issue for us back then. Tick prevention, such as Frontline, was not around at this time. After a quick search, we found a huge paralysis tick on her. My Mum got the tweezers and pulled it out, like we normally did if any of our animals had ticks (We had three cats and another dog). I asked my Mum if we should take her to the vet and she replied, 'Let's just see how she goes, we'll take her tomorrow morning if she's still sick". I remember wanting to take her to the vet so much, but it was my Mum's decision. The next morning, I woke up and checked up on Bambi. She had gotten much worse, she was very wobbly and she was throwing up bile. I ran to get my Mum, and we hurried her straight to the local vets. At the vets they told my Mum that she had seveve tick poisoning, and would need to kept at the vets for a few days. He told her that it would cost a lot of money as she needed to have intravenous therapy and receive the serum for tick poisoning for dogs. My Mum agreed to this and told the vet to do whatever he could to save her. Over the course of the next few days, we visited her. She did not appear to be improving, and the vet said because she was such a small dog, the tick poison affected her much worse than a bigger dog. It was heart breaking to see her there, she could barely move to greet us from her cage/bed. My Mum, sister and I were so upset and really hoping she would recover. A few days after that, my Mum and sister were out ice skating at the then local rink. The vet called the house phone and I was the only one home at the time. The vet told me Bambi had died. I didn't know what to say, so I was just silent and after a minute or so, I said thank-you and hung up. I immediately called my Mum at the ice skating rink, and told her the awful news. She came and picked me up and drove us straight to the vets. It was too late by the time we got there, obviously, but we just wanted to say our goodbyes to Bambi. The vet took us into the room she was in and left us alone. We all went to Bambi and picked her up and cried and cried and cried. I held her in my arms, but she was so limp. I kissed her goodbye, as did my Mum and sister. We were in that room crying and holding her for over an hour before we left. It was the single most upsetting thing that has ever happened to me. Sitting here now and writing this, has made me cry. It was 12 years ago, but I still feel the pain of it today. When people say, "it's just a dog, or it's just a cat". They don't understand, a pet is a family member and the death of a loved pet is devastating. It's not easier because it's an animal. Far from it.
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