In Loving Memory - Milton

Adopted March 30, 2007, lost on December 11th, 2010

I met Milton when I volunteered at BRLA in 2006.
I had no intention to spend my holiday at BRLA and I had no intention to adopt a boxer.
Since I was on a two week vacation in Los Angeles, I just wanted to donate and pay a short visit to BRLA and then drive around and absolve a tourist sightseeing program.
But I found the boxers at BRLA such good company and so interesting that I decided that I could live without Las Vegas and that it would be much more fun to spend my vacation walking the boxers daily at BRLA. On that occasion I met Milton, who was then called Mel. Mel had been picked up by BRLA at a shelter and then returned by adopters.

I ended up taking him for a day out to Santa Monica, not knowing that dogs were not allowed on the beach. So we were walking on the promenade from Santa Monica to Venice, and this was the first time that I had the chance to experience that handsome little fatty Mel was a people magnet. People were all over him. Everybody found him so cute and wanted to pet him. Also I found out that he was a hunter. He made whole swarms of pigeons fly, much to the amusement of the hippie crowds on the beach in Venice.

After my vacation at BRLA, I had to return to London, England, where I lived and worked at that time. Meanwhile, I was waiting for my permanent resident visa for Canada. In London I couldn’t have a dog, due to living conditions, but in Canada, maybe it would be possible.

I received my visa and immigrated to Canada. I started looking for a home that would provide a safe yard for a dog so that he could go out during the day into the garden without being seen from the street by passers-by. I just wanted to have prudent protection for him.

I found a house, and bought it. On March 30, 2007 I picked up Mel from Pearson Airport. The plane was delayed and we only made it home at 2:00AM in the morning, where I had voicemails from BRLA, asking where we were. Then of course, I explained the situation about the delay and Mel got his first chicken meal in his new home.

Mel was renamed Milton, since Milton was the only name he would listen to.
In the first months we were together all the time. We moved into the new house together and Milton helped me establishing routines and getting to know the neighborhood. He was so happy to have a home of his own, it was magic to watch. On our daily evening walks, he put in an extra effort to meet as many people as possible. On one of our first walks, it was a sunny evening, I let him run to a group of teenagers, who were sitting in a circle on the grass by the protestant church. He ran across the grass and literally danced in their circle from one to the other, kissing everybody in sight. He was not so interested in other dogs, but he loved small toy dogs, especially the females. I think they made him feel big and powerful, because he was a very small boxer.

One of the first things I did was have his teeth fixed. I had noticed that he didn’t eat his food and was rather thin and didn’t want to eat. The veterinary dentist at the clinic in Toronto found one abscess, performed one extraction, did one root canal, and an overall cleaning. After all that had been repaired, he started eating – one of his favorite activities – and at times ended up having 62 pounds!

Later I should find out that he was also skilled at hunting and catching little birds. Also, in the beginning, he stole food, if left alone with groceries in the car. I can only assume that previous owners didn’t feed him and therefore he taught himself to be a successful hunter, when left alone in the backyard, which as it seems where he had been left by himself as well by previous owners.

One time, when he was alone in the house during the day, he almost ate one third of a whole large sack of food that was standing in the kitchen. After that he got diarrhea and vomited all over the house. He could have gone outside, there was always his doggie door open for him to go into the backyard, but I think, he was so sick, he didn’t make it outside.  It stank really bad when I walked through the door, when I came home. The heat in the house – it was winter - didn’t make it better. He had even thrown up in my bed. Also he was very scared that I would punish him. I forgave him that very evening, but I was busy cleaning the house for a whole week. But that was much later. He learned that he would always be fed and would get extra treats in my house.

We established our habits and our life together. In September 2008 I had to go back to work to a fulltime job and I constructed a doggie door so that he could go into the backyard, when I was away. He was never crated and didn’t even have to wear a collar when he was in the house. I started a home renovation, which was supposed to last two weeks, but took ages.

Well, the good thing here was that while the house was under construction, Milton went to my neighbor and her shelties during the day. He enjoyed it very much, since my neighbor also had daycare children at that time. Milton loved people big and small and aside from teenagers, he loved children.

In the summer and on warm spring weekends, we went down the road to Lake Ontario. We went there very early in the morning, and Milton had great fun to jump into and bite the waves. He was no runner, but he had great stamina and could walk long distances. So we went for long walks, in the evenings and on the weekends.

One of his favorite places was Petsmart.
Almost every Saturday we went to a Petsmart, either to the one next to his vet or to the Petsmart in Markham, with the Chinese vet’s office next door. One day, he even got a free massage at the Chinese vet’s. He begged for treats at Petsmart – for him standing in line at the check out meant standing in line to get treats – he looked at the food and at other dogs, and was very interested in watching the fish and the birds in the cages and the aquariums. One day he even drank water out of the fish tank.

On our walks, he never missed a chance to drink water out of various puddles. He didn’t like the tap water and since I am drinking it as well, I wonder about the health consequences.

We watched TV together, we shared food – he even liked gummy bears – and he was always by my side, when I went through difficult phases and when I was sick. We had a happy life together with our established routines, which gave both of us stability.

He became older – I had adopted him when he was already between 6 and 7 – and in 2009 he didn’t want to walk such long distances anymore.

In February 2010 I discovered that he had a strange lump on his throat. We went to the vet, where they did ultra sounds. Since the ultra sounds did not reveal much, we were referred to a veterinary clinic in Toronto for further tests.

They discovered that he had two sorts of cancer in an advanced stadium: lymphoma and a big tumor above his kidneys, on which they couldn’t operate.
I decided to try everything to save him. We went through chemo, which helped with the lymphoma, but did not work on the tumor above his kidney. I spoiled him as much as I could. But I would have done that anyway, cancer or not.

The cancer was discovered in February. After that I made sure that we spent as much time as possible together. In the evenings we always went for walks in the neighborhood, whereby we made sure that we went the route where he could meet as many people as possible. We went to Petsmart every weekend. We shared many meals together and in the end, I always gave him part of what I had cooked for myself, before I put it on my own plate. I am sure he was convinced that I had cooked for especially him and that I only got the by-product.

In December 2010 we tried a new chemo.
The new chemo seemed to work and his blood values were fine. On Friday, December 10th, 2010 he spent the whole day at the clinic for observation and felt great.

On Saturday, December 11th, we went grocery shopping for Christmas together and in the morning he ate all his food and even ice cream that I had given him and wanted more. In the afternoon on that day he started to behave strange.
Since it was a Saturday, we went to Petsmart, which was extremely crowded, since they also had a photo session with Santa. We went to his vet’s office first to say hello and everything seemed fine.

He started to behave strange, right after we came through the door at Petsmart.  It was the first time that he didn’t go to the check out to beg for treats. I gave him a treat that I had brought with me, but he spat it out. Very unusual.

We started our walk through Petsmart, he drank water, which was normal since he had started his chemo, and then the next strange thing happened: he laid down. He had never done this before. At Petsmart he was always on the move to see everything and to get around as much as possible. I decided we better go outside. He pulled me to the electronics store next door, we went inside, but he seemed disoriented. Back to Petsmart, same as before and then I decided we better go home.

It was around 8:00PM. I was upstairs, since I had a cold, when I heard him cry downstairs. I ran downstairs and checked on him. His gums were very pale and also dry. “Come let’s go to Sharon.” Sharon was his daycare mom next door. We went there, he knew exactly what I meant where we were going. I was lucky that she was there. He went straight to the darkest spot and tried to hide in her guest toilet. “This is not him”, she said, and checked his gums. “His gums are white.” 

I got the car and drove as fast as I could to Toronto, to his clinic that also had an emergency service. They put him on life support. After a while the emergency vet came and told me that they did all they could do, but his organs were failing due to his cancer. I almost fainted. We decided to give him the euthanization drug, under the condition that I could be by his side until the end. The vet said, if I had not decided to give him the drug, he would have been dead in the morning. I couldn’t believe that I would leave the clinic that night without him, and I must admit, I never cried that much.

I somehow managed to drive home that night. The house was and still is very quiet and empty. I was glad that I had one of the worst flues of my life over Christmas. At least, it prevented me from noticing the emptiness of the house and the long holidays alone.

We had a happy life together and it ended much too fast.
I can only say: Thank you to BRLA and my friends that they gave me so much support after his passing. And thank you Milton for your loyal friendship. I wish we had had more time together.