Remembering DoggyDumpling

It’s been two weeks since DoggyDumpling passed away, and I still don’t know how to write this post, even though I feel I need to.

Every time I think about him, which is every day, every time I find myself in a quiet moment, I still burst into tears.

His passing was so sudden, so unexpected, and it has been absolutely heartbreaking for PapaDumpling and I.

Three weeks ago, DoggyDumpling started having diarrhea. Other than that, it was a perfectly normal Saturday – we even took him out with the entire family that day to play on a big field. We thought he had eaten something he shouldn’t have. We’ve been having construction at our house and one day, when the porch door was open as the construction workers needed to get in and out, he slipped out. We called him back in about 10-15min, but perhaps he had swallowed something he wasn’t supposed to.

On Sunday, he threw up after breakfast, so we didn’t give him any more food, thinking his digestive system needed to calm down before he could eat anything. On Monday, he was still having diarrhea, so we took him to the vet. The vet also believed he probably ate something he shouldn’t have, and even though whatever he ate was probably out of his system by now, he had a sensitive stomach and it had been irritated. So he was sent home with some anti-diarrheal and instructions for a homemade bland diet of chicken and rice.

I made him some chicken rice, but surprisingly he didn’t want to eat. The next day, he still wasn’t eating. He was also very lethargic, sleeping the whole day and usually in his crate or in the small guest bathroom. We thought it was because his stomach wasn’t feeling well. On Wednesday, we called the vet, saying that the anti-diarrheal medicine wasn’t working and that he was getting worse rather than better. They said given his history of poultry sensitivity, maybe we should try to give him beef and rice instead of chicken and rice. So I made him a big batch of ground beef and rice. And again, he refused to eat.

DoggyDumpling never says no to food. Ever. Something must have been very wrong with him.