Sugar Mundy-Brown's Memorial

Sugar Mundy-Brown
(2010 - 2013)

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General Details

Name: Sugar Mundy-Brown
Nick Name: Sugiboog
Gender: Female
Type of Pet: Dog
Breed: Cockapoo
Age: 3 years old
Lived: Tuesday, 25 May 2010 - Sunday, 3 November 2013

My Story

SUGAR’S STORY I want to start Sugar’s story at the beginning – from the day that I first saw her photo online. I wasn’t looking for another dog, as I already had 2. I was playing a game on facebook, when I seen an ad for another facebook app/site. I can’t recall the name of it exactly. It was called something like, Save-a-Dog or Find-a-Dog… something like that. Anyway, out of curiosity and my love for dogs, I clicked on it. It brought up photos of dogs from all over the United States. Of course I saw so many that I thought were cute and I read so many sad stories and I “wanted to save them all”. After looking around the site a bit, I decided to be more specific in my “search” so, I typed in the state that I live in, which is Kansas. I started scrolling through the photos of dogs that needed adopted. It seemed almost instant that a photo of a little white dog called “Maple” caught my attention. She was in a kennel in a town that I had never been to and I had no idea how far away this place even was. There was something about her “Precious Moments” eyes that just drew me in…… This little girl, unknowingly, had grabbed a hold of my heart and she wasn’t letting go. I asked my boyfriend of 12 years, how much gas I had in the vehicle. Then I looked on Mapquest to see just how far this place was and called the kennel and asked if “Maple” was still there. They said that she was, I asked them what time they closed, and then I grabbed our 2 poodles, told my son (he’s an adult), that I was leaving for a while, and headed down the highway. It was either December 22nd or 23rd, 2010. My boyfriend wasn’t crazy about the idea of me getting another dog, since I already had 2. So, I came up with the perfect idea. You see, my son is an adult with some disabilities. At the time, he lived directly across the way from me. He lived alone and would get lonely at times. With “Maple” being a little bit bigger than the 2 dogs that I already had, I thought it would be a wonderful idea if I got her as a companion for my son. I had it all planned out instantly. He would be her owner and no longer be lonely and I would still get to see her every single day and be her main caretaker at the same time. I had her named the minute I saw her photo: Sugar. She was white or mostly white with a little cream color and I just knew she had to be sweet in nature. I was correct! When we got to the kennel, the lady brought her out to meet us and introduced her as “Maple”. I said, “Her name is Sugar”. Then, we filled out the paperwork, paid the fees, waited for her to get micro-chipped, and then loaded her into our vehicle alongside our 2 little poodles. I’ll never forget our first potty stop on the way home. Sugar took to the poodles instantly. Even though she was a little bigger, she seemed to understand that they were smaller than her and she made sure that she never hurt them. Oh, how she had my heart – I absolutely had NO regrets about “rescuing” her! Not only was she a WONDERFUL early Christmas gift for my son, she was the most WONDERFUL addition to our little family. Over the next few years, our bond grew stronger and stronger. We lived in a little trailer court and in a little town during most of this time. We had been saving for a fixer-upper house for about 4 years. We needed to be closer to hospitals and doctors. On May 31, 2013 we finally got our house. It wasn’t exactly what we needed, but we knew that we could make it work. One of the things that were important to us was that it had some sort of yard. We wanted to be able to fence it in so that our 3 dogs could run and play, when they were out and supervised. Oh, how I wanted to see that. We also wanted to be able to celebrate the holidays in our house this year. We knew that there wouldn’t be lots of presents and stuff like that, but that wasn’t (and isn’t) what mattered to us. All that mattered was our family and being together. Sugar never got to have a yard, nor did she get to celebrate the holidays and see a big Christmas tree for the very first time. The night before Halloween, we noticed that Sugar seemed “sick”. Not having lived here very long, we had not yet established a veterinarian for our dogs. We had no idea which vet was “the best”. We knew nothing about any of them in this new city. All we knew was that something was wrong with our Sugar and we needed to get her to a doctor. I searched online and thought I found a place that sounded good – especially since it had the word “hospital” in its title. So, that is where we took her and this is what happened: ____________________, D.V.M. of ___________ Animal Hospital did not keep accurate patient records, at least not for Sugar, anyway. She did not provide the care that Sugar needed. She was supposed to be the professional – she should have told us that she couldn’t provide the care that Sugar needed and either immediately referred us to or recommended a place that could. She told us that she thought Sugar was showing signs of a “slipped disc” and that she should keep her overnight in order to administer I.V. steroids for possible inflammation in her back/spine area. Knowing nothing at all about any of this, we trusted her to know what she was talking about and to take proper care of our precious family member. The girl/assistant that answered the phone at _____________ Animal Hospital (when I called to check on Sugar – very shortly before they were to close that day), told me that Sugar cried non-stop from approximately 9:30a to approximately 6:30p – which was shortly before they closed and locked the doors at 7p on Friday, Halloween night. And I know for a fact that while Sugar was crying, the vet managed to post numerous things on facebook (humorous cartoon type things). I’m sure she’s probably deleted them by now. How could anyone be playing on facebook with an animal crying out in pain?! An animal that was in their care? An animal, that known only to this vet, was in dire need of an emergency operation to save her life? A beautiful, innocent, loving, gentle, 3 year old cockapoo?! Unknown to us at the time (but the vet knew), Sugar needed to be watched VERY closely AND accessed a minimum of every hour. Sugar was in extreme pain (compressed spinal cord) and paralysis was setting in (again, we knew nothing about the paralysis, etc). So, Sugar SUFFERED horribly and alone for a minimum of 14 straight hours straight – while this place was closed. We did not know at the time that this vet didn’t even make sure that Sugar was checked on. She just turned off the lights, locked the door, left and never looked back. Sugar was a “rescue” dog and from the day that we got her, she had NEVER been alone. She went EVERY where with us. She was absolutely terrified of being alone. So, she not only suffered medically, in horrible pain, she also suffered mentally/emotionally. She had never been sick a day in her life – since we had her…… and to suddenly be totally alone, no family, in horrible pain, and becoming paralyzed… all at the same time – OMG! By the time the vet returned the next day (her office didn’t open back up until 9a on this Saturday), Sugar’s back legs were totally paralyzed, she was incontinent, and in much more pain. This vet knew that I was on disability and gave no “discount” for paying cash, nor did she try to minimize the bill. For Sugar’s overnight stay- with NO care for a minimum of 14+ hours straight – 1 x-ray, 1 blood test, an I.V. line, and 2-3 injections, she charged us $516.85. And she wanted ALL that money before she’d let us have Sugar for EMERGENCY transport to a Pet Hospital approximately 1 ½ hours away (for emergency spine surgery). Luckily, I had recently gotten a small home repair loan and I hadn’t used that money yet – so I was able to pay this vet. After I handed her all that money, she told me that Sugar’s surgery was going to cost around $3,000! Since having discussed being on disability with this so-called vet, I’ve come to 2 possible conclusions: 1) She may have thought that since Myelomalacia was so rare, she could get what money she could out of us before telling us that Sugar needed mandatory emergency surgery in order to survive – either partially paralyzed or otherwise; OR 2) Knowing that disability was our only source of income, she probably just figured that we’d either have to “just let Sugar die” or we for sure wouldn’t have the money for the surgery she needed anyway. Bottom line is that ALL this person cared about was bleeding people for whatever money they could come up with and she sure did NOT care at all about Sugar’s well-being, comfort, happiness, nor life. When we arrived at the specialty hospital, Sugar was assessed and the surgeon performed a myelogram on her. He told us that EVERY MINUTE COUNTED, as far as getting Sugar into surgery – and without knowing when the paralysis had started, Sugar’s chances were 50/50 as far as regaining the use of her back legs and being able to urinate on her own (I believe that she was still able to poop at this time). We told the surgeon to do the surgery immediately. He did and Sugar did well through the surgery. No matter what, our little family never left each other – and being on disability we couldn’t afford to even leave the parking lot of the hospital (we wouldn’t have left even if we could). So, Saturday and Sunday night, we slept in our vehicle, in the same spot that we pulled into when we rushed Sugar there – trying to save her back legs and her. We told the entire staff that we were just staying right outside the door, in our vehicle and that we weren’t leaving without Sugar. Sunday night, while sitting in our cold vehicle, we made all the plans for Sugar’s discharge home – which was supposed to be that Monday morning. We planned for her care, nursing her back to health, her comfort, and even the possibility of her never regaining the use of her back legs and having to use a “cart”. Monday morning came and I rushed inside the hospital to use the restroom and ask how Sugar did through the night. I also wanted to know what kind of soft food and other things she would need, so that I could go across the street to the store and get it all bought. That way we wouldn’t have to make any stops on the way home with her, as we wanted to get her home and settled back in and get everything set up to care for her in the best way possible. The nurse told me that Sugar did fine through the night and that they would send the proper food home and would show me all the things that I needed to know in order to care for her properly and for her to heal. She asked me if I wanted to see Sugar and I told her, “Not just yet – I want her morning assessment to go well, so I will wait until after that is done.” Then I returned to my vehicle and told our family that I would be going in to visit her soon and about how they were gonna show me how to take care of her and then she would be discharged. It was less than 3 minutes when a nurse came out to my vehicle and told me that the surgeon was ready to talk to me now. I rushed in, anticipating a training session and discharge orders. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The surgeon told me that Myelomalacia had set in overnight and that Sugar was dying. She said that if Sugar had gotten the surgery sooner her chances were very strong for survival, but that her spine was pretty bruised from the disc “explosion”, and she didn’t get the surgery in time. It felt like my heart just fell right out and onto the floor. I asked her if it could possibly be the pain medication. She told me that they had considered that possibility and unfortunately that was not what was happening. I ran out to the vehicle and told my family, then immediately asked to go in and be with Sugar. They allowed me to stand by her until the rest of our family got back there. My son had left overnight with his grandmother, as he was having some health issues at the time and it was best for him not to stay overnight in the vehicle again. He didn’t want to leave, but we all agreed at the time that it would be best, so that I could get Sugar home and settled in before Grandma brought him back. We are an extremely close little family, which also includes 2 toy poodles (Sassy and Dusty Dew). Our 3 dogs are SO close. I asked permission for them to come in and be with Sugar in her final moments, also. They brought Sugar into a little room so that we could all be with her and they allowed the poodles to be there, too. It was so heart-wrenching! The surgeon explained what was happening and that Sugar was becoming totally paralyzed. She said that Sugar was in extreme pain, even with the pain medication and that her ability to breathe would be the last part of her to stop – become paralyzed. Sugar wanted to speak (and tried), and to touch us so bad – she always had to put her paws on one of us when she slept. She had NO voice left. She could only move her head and neck a little bit - and her eyes. She definitely had not lost any of her memory. We all petted her head (hoping that she could feel our hands on her), and said our good-byes. She smelled the poodles and they all 3 made direct eye contact, with no sounds at all. They were all 3 so sad and Sugar was so scared. The surgeon explained that since Sugar was in so much pain and she wouldn’t be able to breathe much longer (she was already struggling to pull air into her lungs), that it would be best to euthanize her as soon as possible. She was struggling so hard. We asked the surgeon if there was any way that this could be something else, a mistake, a wrong diagnosis….. was there any way that Sugar could/would live. She assured us that the diagnosis was correct and that Sugar would die, she is struggling and in pain, and she is dying fast. She also told us that this was one of those times that she definitely recommended euthanasia. Our little family had always agreed on one thing for sure – that we would never put one of our dogs to sleep…… but, that day changed our thoughts on that decision. Seeing Sugar in pain, paralyzed, and actually dying – with no chance whatsoever of surviving, we knew that we had to agree to euthanize her. It was actually what was best for her. We all agreed, bowed our heads, and didn’t leave Sugar’s side. As the surgeon left to get the medication to put Sugar “to sleep”, we all said our FINAL goodbyes to our Sugar. Other than burying my youngest son, it was the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do in my life. We assured her that she was such a good girl (and she was – not even a mischievous bone in her body – she always only wanted to “do right” and even though she was only around 15 pounds, she was our “gentle giant”), we were SO sorry that this had happened to her, and that we all loved her SO SO very much. Then I told her that she was gonna go to sleep and when she woke up that we wouldn’t be there, but that other family members would be there and she wouldn’t hurt anymore and she would never be alone. I also told her that if there’s any way that we can all be together again someday, that we would, and not only would we all be so happy, we would all be together and happy for eternity. Then I told her that we were a family of 6, she was #6, and that there would never be another #6. Right before the surgeon put the medication into Sugar’s I.V., I sang my little song to her, “You are my Sassy and my Sugar and my Dusty Dew – You’re my poodle and my poodle and my cockapoo……” There was never a doubt in our minds that we wouldn’t leave that pet hospital without our Sugar, we just never imagined that we’d be bringing her home to bury her.

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Biography

Owners Names: Vesper Brown & Brandon Mundy
Other Family Pets: Sassy & Dusty Dew
Country: USA
City: Topeka

Interests

Favourite Toy: Most squeaky soft toys.
Favourite Place: Home, yard, front porch, lakes, Grandmas house.
Favourite Meal: Potato chips & all food except wasabi peas, mushrooms, and chicken/waffle flavored potato chips.
Favourite Game: Chasing her toys and playing with the poodles.
Favourite Trick: Hop hop hop, speak, spin, lay down.
Favourite Music: Calming music at a low volume.
Type of Affection: Very loving, kind, appreciative little girl who liked to give kisses and say "good morning".
Pet's Peeves: Loud banging type noises or fast/sudden movements by any one around her.
Other Interests:
She loved her family and home.

Passing

Place of Passing: Blue Pearl Animal Hospital in Overland Park, KS.
Date of Passing: 3 November 2013
Cause of Passing: Myelomalacia
Type of Funeral: Private service with entombment at home.
Place of Burial: Her home.
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