Kaya never saved Timmy

Note: This is kind of long, but there are a lot of pictures. It also could be triggering if you've ever suffered the loss of a loved dog or cat.

Kaya was a great dog. She never rescued a baby from a burning building, she never warned us that Timmy had fallen in a well*, and she had never learned to pick up her own poop.

No, her superpower was that she could eat. And weirdly, in addition to the normal things dogs eat, she loved to eat broccoli stems, asparagus ends, and bananas.

Her second superpower was being exuberantly adorable.

OK - this may be her being a bit too adorable.

Back in October of 2011, we were finally ready to adopt a new big dog, following the loss of our previous big dog, Teddy. You can read about him here. 

We found Kaya from a post on Craig's List. She was a one-year-old black lab/boxer mix - the family that she was with was having to move to a place that didn't allow pets, so she desperately had to find a new home. We loved her from that first meeting - she was definitely a full grown puppy with a ton of energy.

Mrs Notthat on Kaya's gotcha day, being a bit surprised by the length of her tongue!

The grandkids really liked playing with her.

A very young second-born grandkid losing at tug-of-war.

We were pretty active with trail races and hiking/running, and that fit right into Kaya's wheelhouse - she was a pretty good trail runner.

Mrs Notthat trying to keep up with Kaya.

Kaya's kryptonite was the sun though. All that black fur made direct sunshine her mortal enemy.

Kaya had had enough on this hike.

She ran a number of 5Ks with us. I tried to run a sunny 10K with her once that involved two loops (one of the races at the Brazen Dirty Dozen event in 2016). As we were finishing the first loop, she was excited and practically sprinting to the finish, where she knew there was food. A LOT of food. When I turned and started heading back away from the finish for the second loop, she put an end to that nonsense.

Kaya finding some shade and being perfectly content with a 5K. "Bring me some BBQ!"

About a year and a half after Kaya joined our family, we added Princess - an obnoxious little fur ball that easily matched Kaya's energy, but with about a quarter of the brains. They got along great together, with Princess absolutely convinced that she was Kaya's big sister.

Kaya and Princess sensing that there is food somewhere in the house.

One of Kaya's favorite things to do was splash in water.

Mrs Notthat and granddog Dove avoiding the puddle. Kaya wondering why it's not a bigger puddle.

She loved going for walks after a rain when the curbs were filled with water - she would just splash along in them as happy as a fish.

Kaya never understood why some water tasted so salty. This was with the grandkids, Mrs Notthat, and Princess, who would go through a lot of trouble to avoid touching water.

Kaya did really well around other dogs, although as she got older, she could get a bit cranky around high energy dogs, especially once she started to lose her hearing - she didn't like getting surprised.

Kaya with the old arrow-through-the-neck gag.

One fun thing was that she mostly tolerated the cats that we added in 2017.

Kaya sharing her bed with, believe it or not, our cat named Kaya! We didn't name either of them, but were astonished how this worked out.

Back in July of 2023, a little sore spot appeared on Kaya's belly that we didn't think too much of. At first we had her wear a shirt to discourage her from licking it, then finally switched to a cone once it became apparent that she was still licking it too much and it wasn't healing as fast as we thought it should.

Kaya trying to be a Giants fan, but man, where was their offense?

At first, the spot seemed to be healing, although maybe that was wishful thinking on our part. In the end, the spot kept slowly growing. Kaya did not seem the least bit bothered by it, other than wanting to lick it. She was still her normal active self - it was amazing how puppy-like she would act for a dog that was around fourteen years old!

Me bravely walking our two dogs and our granddog, Jax.

Kaya found a puddle!

Somewhere around this time, her vet started her on some medications and an ointment for the spot.

Kaya, Princess, and Mango all coexisting on the deck at the end of summer.

 

Kaya in a shirt and cone. She did not enjoy the cone, but it seemed to bother her a lot less than it would have bothered me.

By December, it became clear that the spot wasn't going to heal, and arrangements were made to get it removed, which happened in January. That's when we learned that it was cancerous, and that likely more would be appearing over time. But also, it appeared that it was pretty isolated just to that area, so maybe we would get a break for a bit.

Kaya generally refused to lay completely on her bed - for reasons that only made sense to her, she generally liked to lay half on/half off of it. 

We didn't get much of a break.

Within a couple of weeks a new spot started up. Unlike the last one, this one grew fairly fast, and its location made it a bit uncomfortable for Kaya to do one of the things she loved most that didn't involve food - walks around the block. So we set up another appointment to get it removed. The weekend before the second surgery, Kaya was acting very normal until Sunday evening, when it was like a switch had been flipped.

She suddenly found it difficult to stand or walk. She wasn't hungry. Even laying down, it seemed to be a struggle to get comfortable. I took her to the vet on Monday morning and a quick check revealed that the cancer had spread internally. A lot. 

Kaya resting her head on my hand while at the vet. She was so ready to be done.

I was glad I got to be with her at the end. I had to carry her from the house to the car, and once we got there, lift her out of the car, but surprisingly, she was able to walk into a little grassy area and pee a bit. Then, even more surprisingly, she walked into the office - it was like she was determined to be dignified while out in public, and getting carried by me was very not dignified.

Once it was all over and I left the room, the first thing I noticed were the candles at the front desk. I had noticed them on previous visits but had never seen them lit - there was a sign explaining that if they were lit, someone was having a very bad day and to please be respectful. 

Seeing them lit as I left nearly broke me. If people were wondering who was having a very bad day, they certainly were able to figure it out at that point. 

Then, a final funny thing (at least to me) happened. When I left the vet office, I saw a trail of poop balls from the little grassy area to the curb by the front door. I thought that was odd, and then it dawned on me that those were a last gift from Kaya, left as she walked, with her dignity, from the grassy area to the office. I grabbed a bag and picked them up, knowing that it was weird that this was making things a bit better.

The grand old girl Kaya saying goodbye. But she still wanted to know who Timmy was. And what a well was, for that matter.

It's so hard when a loved four-legged family member leaves. There is a huge hole left in the house. 

Princess knows something has happened, but seems OK. She is also getting up there in years (twelve or thirteen - nobody really knows), but being a little dog, and a mutt, she is still very healthy and active. She will get a lot more walks now (I couldn't bring myself to take her out for a walk while leaving Kaya at home once Kaya got to the point where walks weren't possible). She is still fine with longer distances - I'm going to try her out in a 5K on Saturday and see how she does (we can easily stop at the halfway point, but I doubt that will be an issue).

Heavy sigh…

Hug your fur babies. A lot.

That's it - move along…

* For you kids, this is a reference to an old trope that Lassie, a collie on a TV show named after her, often would come dashing into the house, letting the parents know that their idiot son, Timmy, had fallen into a well. Apparently there never was an episode where that happened, although Lassie letting the parents know that Timmy was in trouble really did happen remarkably often.