Gratitude for Griffy

I am asking for your help so that I can take away Griffy's pain and give him a few more years outside the walls of the kennel he lived in for 6 years.

I read somewhere that dogs are here on Earth to save us. I imagine the saving is obvious in some ways and subtle in others.  Almost twelve, Griffy is a schnauzer that was left to be euthanized at 3 years of age at the animal hospital/kennel where I work part time. Griffy has issues: social, anxiety, biting, etc. He is the definition of "project dog." He lived at the kennel for six years, and in those six years, I was one of his few "chosen humans." I don't know why, but I wore his affection as a badge of honor. I always said to Griffy, "Someday." Well Griffy has lived with us for two years now, but has spent the last 7 weeks in the hospital being treated for an excruciatingly painful case of Discospondylitis, an infection in one or more of his bones in his spinal column. Thus far his medication alone has reached over six hundred dollars. 

One morning, almost two months ago, Griffy stiffly came out of his kennel. He hesitated and refused to go down the three steps off our porch. I picked him up and he yelped. When I put him on the ground, his paws crumpled under him and he screamed. Screamed as a dog does when hit by a car, and I cringed in pain. This episode only began what has become a very long agonizing journey for our little schnauzer. Just trying to diagnose his condition, and decide a course of action was challenging with his presented symptoms. He had more than one relapse, and I had more than one conversation with my vet about how many "lives" Griffy had. At one point he was on two-three strong injectible pain medications twice a day just to silence the piercing pain(click here). If that phase of his recovery was not to work, I was going to have to put him to sleep. I couldn't let him continue in such pain. There has been more than a few nights trying to know what is best.

Bronte was the name of my 12 year old pit bull, and she is the reason I first got on Facebook, and the reason Griffy didn't come to live with me sooner. I never thought Bronte would get along with other dogs, or that Griffy would get along with other dogs for that matter. But the short story is our Great Dane David, who is the biggest beta boy in the world, makes our multidog household possible. I adopted Griffy because I didn't want him to live his remaining years in the kennel, and I could give him a huge yard to run in. Thanks to David, Griffy also has learned how to play like a dog(click here), something he had never done before.

I've worked at this animal hospital in their kennel area part time for over ten years, and know without them I would not be able to have kept Griffy. The truth is I would have had to put him down. None of this would be possible without them. I already owe them so much, and that's why I'm asking for help. Every night after school (I'm an elementary teacher), I go and visit with him until the hospital closes. I know it's my projections that I don't want him to think I've given him back. It's just that he's so happy to see me, and my heart is so sad when I have to go home without him.

Cancer took my Bronte when she was twelve. With Bronte I used to say she was a rescue dog, but in truth, I was really the one that had been rescued. She rescued me and gave me a new life. I got another chance to be happy. Thing was though, we didn't get to dodder into old age together. I want to dodder into old age with Griffy. Please help me continue to help Griffy.