Maya
3/26/2014-1/09/2023
So our baby girl Maya passed away and we are devastated. She wasn’t just some dog she was a huge part of our family especially for Vera and I. I always loved Rottweilers and really wanted to get one. We were living in my parents basement at the time so I needed to convince them to get a dog and this took a couple of years. Finally in 2013 they agreed and we started our search contacting pet adoption centers, visiting North Shore Animal League and the ASPCA in the city. Finding a Rottweiler was difficult and we found out just trying to adopt a dog from a center can be very difficult. Most places said no immediately when we told them cats live with us as well, some places required us to bring one of the cats in and meet any dog we were thinking about adopting. We finally found a Rottweiler mix but he was in Pennsylvania, we contacted them anyway and were willing to drive up and adopt the dog but they never got back to us, it was at this point I started to lose hope because this was 6 months of trying. We always adopted animals and I didn’t want to look at any puppy stores, I’m not making an issue against breeders or puppy stores just heard a lot of horror stories. I looked at the website of a puppy store near us and scrolled through some pictures and there were these two Rottweilers a brother and sister, I looked at the sister and then looked at Vera and said lets go. Got there and after seeing her for 30 seconds there was no doubt we were taking her home.
It was Fathers Day 2014 we took her home, My grandmother was over and she could care less about any animal but for some reason she liked Maya and sat on the couch feeding her pretzels. We started crate training her and she only had one accident in the house, this stayed true up until the day she passed. A couple of months later unfortunately my grandmother passed, back and forth to the hospital, funeral services, we needed to leave Maya alone for long periods of time and she was never an issue.
Maya never really had any health issues, my only concern with her was her weight because Rottweilers can eat a ton of food and I didn’t want her weight to get out of control. We always got her quality dogfoods and treats and never over did it. In November 2022 she started to become a bit picky with her eating, I recently tried a different food for her and thought that was the issue so I got her usual food and she was eating fine again. A week later she was being picky again so I called the vet to get her checked out. Her bloodwork showed she could have pancreatitis due to high amounts of fat in her diet (we give her natural peanut butter as a treat) so I removed all fat from her diet and started making her food. She was fine for a few days but was being picky with her food again. I knew something was wrong cause on thanksgiving she didn’t want to be bothered and barely ate the turkey I gave her so we called the vet again.
So this time they did x rays on Maya, I remember it was stressful cause we had the girls with us and we were both concerned about what could be wrong. The vet took us in another room to go over the x rays and ill never forget walking into that room cause the second I saw his face I knew something was terribly wrong. Her liver was grossly enlarged to the point it was pushing onto her other organs, he said nothing can be concluded from an x ray so an in depth sonogram at a specialist should be considered. Vera asked questions about what could be wrong and what we can do and he said lets see the sonogram cause there are concerns about the C word. We have known this vet for a long time and trust him a lot I knew she had cancer and all I was thinking is whatever they have to do we will do it no matter the cost. We scheduled the sonogram ASAP it was for the first Monday in December and I had to take Siena with us but she just slept and they came out to the car to take her in for the sonogram so it didn’t matter. The doctor called me and explained it is indeed cancer so it wasn’t a big shock for me and I was ready to talk about what we can do treatment wise. He went on to say she has a rare form of cancer that’s in every lobe of her liver and it’s seen in less than 5% of dogs. Starting to get a bit nervous I asked about treatment and he talked about chemo therapy however it will make her miserable and may not be effective, after that he said your looking at weeks not months and it was at this point I lost it. I couldn’t speak for a good 30 seconds and asked how long with the chemo and he said maybe it will extend her life a month or two but she will be very sick and there is only about a 40% chance the treatment will be effective. Stayed in the car a good 20 minutes before finally leaving and knew I had to call Vera and tell her the terrible news.
We were obviously very upset after this and every time we looked at Maya we would break down. Not wanting to spend our remaining time with her being sad all the time we asked the vet if we could do anything and he prescribed a steroid. I purchased every type of vitamin and supplement for liver health because my sister had a cat with liver cancer and he lived a little over a year after they found out however I wasn’t optimistic. Vera took Maya to her favorite park that weekend, she loved going by the water and walking in the sand. We took her everywhere and rarely left her alone, we were hoping she would at least be here for the holidays. We took her to Christmas eve at my mothers and Christmas day at Vera’s mothers and we gave her whatever she wanted to eat, lobsters, shrimps, steaks, lasagna, Maya was loving it. She was eating really well and we started to get a little more optimistic that maybe she will be around longer than we thought but things quickly changed.
My birthday is January 5th and it fell on a Thursday so since my Mother was off from work she ordered food for us and some family at her house. We got pizza and a couple of heroes and I remember Maya not being interested in the chicken cutlet so this was concerning, she would just sniff it and look away. That weekend she really stopped eating and we started to really worry, we went to my mothers again on Sunday and Maya really did not look good. When we got home I made her some bacon and when she refused that I knew she was in serious trouble so we agreed to call the vet first thing Monday morning and maybe get her an appetite stimulant.
Monday morning I woke up to Maya vomiting around 730, Siena had an appointment with the ear specialist so on the way I called the vet to set up an appointment to come in when we got back. We arrived home and Maya was laying in her living room bed so I was hopeful she was feeling better. I took her out to make and noticed she was walking funny, she went out and was walking sideways but still urinated outside. I knew today was the day we would lose Maya. Vera was working and Olivia was at school but since it was Monday my Mother was off, I planned to have my Mother watch the girls and Maya and I would meet Vera at the vet where we would have to say goodbye. I was getting ready to take her to the vet and her breathing became very heavy so I took her bed in the den and had her lay down. I was kissing her head trying to relax her, got up to bring in her water bowl and when I came back she took her final breath. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Maya was ready to go that Saturday but she waited until Vera wasn’t home. I couldn’t just call Vera and tell her cause she would be hysterical and probably unable to drive home so I called my Mother so she can pickup Olivia and I could take Maya to the vet.
We had Maya cremated and put some of her ashes in this frame we had custom made, the rest of her ashes will be spread at her two favorite parks. We always think about Maya and basically everything around the house reminds us of her. I will always remember how smart she was, the girls would crawl on her and she would never react she would just look at us cause she knew the girls would go flying if she just got up with them on her back. People were afraid of Maya just cause she was a Rottweiler but she was the sweetest dog you would ever meet. Maya loved Olivia and Siena and she was always protective of them. Siena is to young to understand but we had to sit down with Olivia and talk to her about what happened to Maya. Olivia knew Maya was sick because she would see how upset Vera and I were after we found out abut the cancer. We will see what happens in time but I’m not sure if we could ever get another dog, Maya was just to special and could never be replaced.