Farewell to Luna

Luna was diagnosed with diabetes just after Christmas. I took her to the vets on Christmas Eve as I had noticed that she was drinking (and peeing) a lot. He said it could be diabetes or the start of kidney failure and took a blood test to discover what it was. When I rang later in the day he confirmed that it was diabetes and asked me to go in on Boxing Day (not a public holiday here) to discuss treatment. The upshot was that she had to have an injection of insulin each morning and 2 regular meals a day of a special diabetes diet for dogs. A bit of a blow for her as she was used to having her food down all day and being able to nibble as and when she wanted to, no more titbits either! For the first few days Nigel held her whilst I gave her the injection but she soon got used to it and it was no problem. In fact as soon as she saw me getting the syringe ready she was waiting for it as she knew that she got her breakfast afterwards. For a month or so this stabilised her condition and she was back to being the happy, lively Luna that she had been. Then her condition deteriorated again, back to drinking a lot, peeing a lot and rather lacklustre. Back to the vet for another blood test which confirmed that she needed a higher dose of insulin. Sadly after another couple of weeks she really went downhill, she had lost a lot of weight and couldn’t go out for a walk, just into the garden briefly. The vet confirmed what I thought, that her time had come. He said that we could up the insulin again but that it wouldn’t work for long so we agreed that he had to put her to sleep. I brought her home and put her in her basket and let Rambo see her for the final time before we buried her in the garden. It was obviously so sad to lose her but I had had time to adjust to the possibility of it since Christmas as we knew then that she was on borrowed time. I am just so grateful that the vet saved her last summer, when she was so ill, and gave us an extra few months with her. I think that everyone who came here, or to Carol, realised what a special little dog she was. We had her for almost 12 years (she was 13) and she gave us her undivided love and attention. Rambo seemed quite lost for a while but has now settled to being top dog!