Cassiopaeia Narcissa - BORN A DOG - DIED A LADY

Born in August 1995
RIP on 8 March 2009

i know that some of you knew, or knew of, our old dog, cassie (i certainly bragged enough on her!). she passed away sunday morning at 8 a.m. at the matthew j. ryan veterinary hospital at the university of pennsylvania in philly. she was 13-1/2 years old, and we had gotten her as a 3-week-old, 2-pound runt, who needed to be fed with a syringe, poor little thing.

lately, for almost 2 weeks, she was becoming so debilitated by her megaesophagus and could keep no food or medication down and was wasting away. we had already made plans to donate her body to the university for research and training, but we did not know we would be losing her so soon. she had such a horrible night saturday into sunday that we could not bear to see her go through another day, even though she had settled down by the morning. it was one of the
hardest things we have had to do to put her in the car and drive that long highway up to philly. the consolation was that the staff there was extremely sweet and kind with cassie, and with us. even cutting the abnormally long "toe-hawk" from in between the pads of her back feet for
us to keep as a memento when i asked for it - i am sure that was a new one for them...! we feel at peace knowing she is at peace, but our hearts ache in the emptiness left behind.

if any of you have pets, please keep in mind that veterinary schools need little furbaby bodies to train their students in the various procedures such as placing IVs and ports, trachs, etc. and, in cassie's case, they can take a look at her odd and amazing innards to help further research and perhaps extend the lives of other megaesophagus babies. Colleen Ward is the contact person for the university in the memorial donation program. they accept animals who have died, have
who have been euthanized at other facilities, or, as with cassie, have been euthanized at their hospital. Colleen is a wonderful and tender lady who helped us very much in making our plans.