Izzie Davis

Isabelle Jenkins, Isa-smell Stinkins, Spaz...she had many names.

 

This whole situation was completely unexpected. It shook us to the core. As of last night, we received about as much information as we can, for several weeks, regarding her passing.

 

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We stayed up SO late Saturday night watching football. Everything was normal. James was in bed, Angel was curled up in a ball beside Jimmy, and Izzie was making her way from room to room patrolling the house. The girl was so full of energy. She was trying to get Jimmy to play Frisbee with her outside at 10:30 p.m.! Crazy girl. We stumbled up to bed just after midnight and all was wonderful in the world.

 

We slept in the following morning since I didn't have to run. I'm not sure the exact time but it had to be close to 9 a.m. I heard Jimmy get up out of bed and go downstairs. He was trying to get the girls (Izzie and Angel...we refer to them as "the girls") to go outside and potty. Izzie is always prompt and responsive to our requests but I noticed that Jimmy said her name about 4-5 times. The next thing I remember is Jimmy yelling frantically, "Lisa, hurry! I think Izzie is dead!"

 

I quickly snapped out of my slumber, frozen for a split second...not really registering what he was saying. I heard him scream the words again as I was running down the stairs. I saw Izzie lying in her normal side-lying sleep position with her legs straight out. When I approached her, I knew he was right. She was so stiff. My heart sank.

 

At this time, I couldn't cry. I felt the urge to be strong for my husband. He was hysterical. I knew I had to stay strong enough until we figured out what to do. My first thought was to call Izzie's vet (who I have programmed in my phone). I wasn't thinking about the fact that it was Sunday and they weren't open. The only other thing I could think to do was contact my running friend, Deb, who is a vet. She was so kind to give me her phone number and let me call her. It was then that I broke down. I had to say the words out loud to her. I told her what was going on and she graciously guided me through who to call and what to say/ask. She's the one who suggested a necropsy (autopsy) to ensure that Angel would not be affected by whatever took Izzie.

 

We called OSU vet clinic and they instructed us to bring Izzie to their Dublin location as soon as we could get her there. At this time, James was just waking up. My poor husband had to pick up Izzie and bring her downstairs so that James would not see what was going on. I gave him a blanket and we covered her up. I don't know how, but we managed to feed and change James in addition to throwing clothes on ourselves so that we could take Izzie to OSU. This as all a blur and I have no idea what really happened. I know there were a lot of phone calls going on at this time.

 

Jimmy took Angel downstairs to say her last goodbye to Izzie. We knew that we couldn't bring her with to the clinic. We let poor Angel sniff her. OMG...I can't even...

 

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I asked Jimmy to put Izzie up front so that James couldn't see her. I sat in the back with James and we all cried our entire trip to the clinic. When we arrived, they confirmed what we already knew to be reality. We filled them in on everything we knew and told them our request for a necropsy and cremation. They allowed us to sit in a private room while they did a few things. After signing some paperwork, we realized that, once we left this building, it would be the last time we would ever see Izzie. I can't describe to you guys the feeling I had in that moment. I was surrounded by my clueless two year old telling us all about "cold snow," my sobbing husband that I couldn't stop hugging, and my sweet precious Aussie lying on the table in my blanket.

 

They told us to take as much time as we needed. Honestly, we could have stayed all day but knew it wouldn't make a difference. We tried to explain as much as we could to James that he needed to say goodbye to Izzie. We let him pet her and give a kiss (which he did every night before he went to bed). Jimmy and I took turns giving our last hugs, pets and kisses to our sweet girl. I didn't want to leave her. It was the worst feeling in the world.

 

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We literally spent the entire day crying. Jimmy and I tried to take turns taking care of James so that the other person could be alone to cry. Sometimes we couldn't help it and just cried together. You guys, I know these things happen all the time but it's never easy. The rest of the day was crap...the next day was crap...and today is still hard.

 

We did get our preliminary results of the necropsy. The cause of death has not yet been identified but they do know this:

1. She did not have any sort of chronic illness/disease process.
2. She was not poisoned in any form or fashion.
3. Whatever the cause, it was nothing Jimmy and I could have detected or prevented.

From what I understand, they sent in tissue samples of some organs for further testing. If something is found, we will not know for 6-8 weeks. My sweet husband has been making all of the hard phone calls the past two days. He found out today that Izzie has been sent to Schoedinger Funeral Home for cremation and we should expect to get her back in 7-10 days.

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I'm weeping as I type all of this. I still can't believe this has happened. The sting is still very present. It seems that my car is my safe place for letting it all out. I've pretty much been crying in between each patient that I see during the day. I miss her so much. The house feels so different without her.