I Was Completely Wrong About Putting This Beautiful Elderly Dog To Sleep

I like being honest and transparent on this mission to save street dogs and about 7 days ago I had decided to put Birdie to Sleep. She was in agony and she had no future quality of life.

I lay beside her in my own house as she yelped in pain and I made peace with the fact that her time had come. I wanted to talk you through the decisions that often come my way with helping street dogs and a rollercoaster 10 days…

Birdie’s History On The Streets

We got a call about a little elderly street dog 15 months ago and brought her straight in. We quickly discovered she was incontinent and because the pee was leaking onto her fur it was infecting her body horribly. She was dealing with this while living outside restaurants and scavenging for food.

Although she was a much older lady her health was decent apart from her bladder so we decided to give her a golden ticket to live in our retirement village. Birdie retired there and enjoys daily baths, ear cleaning, good food and medicines as she needed them.

The Beating Heart Of The Retirement Village

She is a little Angel of a dog. Birdie is patient, shy, loving and quiet. She is one of those gentle creatures who fits in with all other dogs and humans alike. Nobody could say a bad word about her.

You could always sense how grateful she was to have a nice leisurely life after all the hardness she had endured. She loves her retirement village.

Her Little “Episode”

10 days ago my phone lit up with messages and 3 of us arrived at the land to find Birdie in a very bad way…

• We found her close to death in the retirement village

• The team revived her with oxygen and emergency care

• It took us a couple of days to figure out it was a broken hip and that she got heat stroke from getting stuck in the direct sun.

Birdie couldn’t eat or drink herself for 3 days. She couldn’t use the toilet and her breathing was heavy at all times. Everything seems obvious now in hindsight with the diagnosis but at the time I was thinking stroke or heart attack. I’ve seen enough dogs die that I told myself this was not going to end well.

Pressure Of The Decision - External / Internal

As I lay with her on the 2nd night I decided at about 2am that it was the end of the road for Birdie. I looked at her and made peace with the decision. I thought about what I’d write about her. How we’d give her a lovely send off. The flowers we’d pick. I knew people would be sad so I prepared myself mentally. I didn’t sleep a wink.

Thats when the whole world started having an opinion on little Birdie…

• A split consensus within our own team about if Birdie should battle on or be let pass away peacefully. People who love her, walk her, clean her and spend their days off coming to visit Birdie.

• 100s of direct messages online from the general public (including vets and medical staff) telling me to put her out of her misery immediately.

• Other dogs like Biscotti were coming in and hanging around and supporting Birdie. They knew something was up but they weren’t giving up on her.

• Cultural differences in Thailand with Buddhism being the primary religion where a natural death is typically preferred.

Thats when Dr Singha our vet said he saw something none of us saw and he passionately stated the case that she should have 2 weeks to try and recover. I don’t mind saying I thought he was wrong but I agreed as I’m not a vet.

She Was Barking For Her New Life

The strangest thing happened when Birdie was at her very worst up in my house and again the next day in the hospital. Birdie started barking non stop which is strange as she isn’t a barker at all. She would bark for an hour non stop as if trying to tell us something.

She did it when I was hiding my tears from her after I’d decided it was time and also when the medical team were having very serious discussions about her future. At the time I thought she was trying to tell us all just how much pain she was in.

I’m now pretty certain that it was her way of trying to tell me “I’m ok you bloody idiot and I want to live”. This is Birdie today with the people who love her…

You might think reading this somebody has called me out or disagreed with my decision and I’m giving my side of the story. It’s the opposite. I’m calling myself out. I genuinely thought putting Birdie to sleep was the kindest thing to do but luckily I was completely and utterly wrong.

It’s just one tiny little creature’s life on an island in Thailand but you should see how the team are all smiling today seeing Birdie potter around for head rubs. It got me thinking about my takeaways…

1. It’s OK to have an opinion on something and be totally wrong. There is no shame in that.

2. Even if 100 people are saying 1 thing very loudly there might be 1 person who is quiet but right.

3. You can be down in life like Birdie, but you are never out.

I personally think that after a life on the streets little Birdie has now found friends, love and a home. She found it late in life and she was determined to live on and enjoy more of the good life. As I was leaving today she was trying to “run” back down to her friends in the retirement village.

I’ve never been as happy in my life to be wrong.

Big love.

Niall

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