by Miss Bryan Moxley
I will never forget the words of my veterinarian on that cold March morning. "Hello, Bryan? Sam Garrett. I have some bad news. Camille died a few hours ago. It was March 4, 1999 at 6:37 a.m. I know exactly what time he called because I kept looking back at my caller ID on my phone thinking it was a dream-that he really didn't call. He did. This horrible story started 10 days before. Camille was a very active 1yr.,3mo. old jack russell terrier who was the light of my life. That morning, I found Camille in my bathroom surrounded by shredded papers, tissues, feminine napkins, and by vitamin B tablets with teeth marks in them. I rushed her to the vet thinking she had injested the vitamin B. After X-rays, blood tests, medications,etc. nothing was ever found, still she continued to get sicker. In and out of the vet for the next 5 days, I started to realize something was drastically wrong. Exactly one week later,the vet gave Camille a different X-ray and some curvy lines running parallell showed up-the adhesive strip of an entire feminine napkin. They immediately did surgery and she survived it, but was in bad shape. 48 hours later, she had to have emergency surgery again, and , again, she survived. I knew at this point, things were not good. When talking (Crying) to the vet that day, I begged him to let me hire one of his techs to stay with her at the office that night. He instead said he wanted to take her home with him. I was touched so deeply, and I knew he was deeply worried. She died that night at his house. I think Camille suffered so much for those 10 days, but I really believe she held on to give me time to prepare myself for her death. It has been 3 and a half months since she died, and guilt has almost overcome me for taking my attention off of her for those 3 minutes it took for her to get in the trash. I only hope my story can help someone else, and Camille didn't die for nothing. I have since gotten a cousin of Camille's from the breeder I got Camille, and I love her dearly, but I miss Camille desperately. I wake up crying and go to bed crying. I just hope she's somewhere better running and playing happily. Bye, 'mill,'mill. I love you, Mom.