Gladdy, The Face of Gladdy’s Goodies Passes Away

It’s with a heavy heart that we announce Gladdy, the face and inspiration of Gladdy’s Goodies has passed away on April 2, 2020; she was 16 years old.

Gladdy came to our family on December 24, 2013 when her current owner could no longer care for her. She came with some health issues that were immediately addressed after Christmas. When she was adopted by us, we saved her from being dropped off at the local pound and quickly euthanized from the health issues.

Once the health issues were taken care of she became a very important member to our family, joining her new sister Ali and brother Puppy. She changed our lives as we also changed her.

I will never forget the first time I met her. I entered the house she was living at and on the couch was this big yellow towel rolled up into a pile by the arm rest. Suddenly a head pops up and a smile like I’ve never seen. That smile was her trademark, it’s the same smile you see on our logo. From that moment on, I knew she was ours.

Hardships that arose from tainted treats we gave her in 2018 led to what is Gladdy’s Goodies. These treats were designed so she could enjoy snacks, something she was unable to do so anymore because of her chronic pancreatitis that stemmed from the tainted treats. We felt the need to share this with the world and Gladdy couldn’t have been more proud to be there.

Gladdy somehow knew when I was working on Gladdy’s Goodies because she was by my side supervising me as I cut the treats for cooking. She tried a sample from each batch of treats that came out of the oven. She sat by my feet when I was at my desk or on my lap and watch me type or build our website. When I was doing an interview she would often pop in or she’d show up on our Facebook Live chats. Life will never be the same.

In January Gladdy developed a serious cough that we just couldn’t get rid of. Initially we thought it was chronic bronchitis but when the treatment didn’t work there was one other option, heart disease. Her x-rays showed her heart was enlarged and her lungs filled with fluid so we started her on heart treatments.

However they didn’t seem to work, they just stopped her from coughing but her breathing got worse. The doctors couldn’t understand why she had such trouble and why the medications were not working.

On Wednesday April 1, 2020 Gladdy was by me as usual by my desk but was very restless, her belly distended and she couldn’t sleep. She was panting excessively and we thought she was having a pancreatitis flareup. We gave her stomach medication and pain killers which helped her relax.

That night when she sat on my lap her tongue was blue and there was a rasp in her lungs when she breathed, I could feel it on my leg.

She didn’t sleep well that night and in the morning she was shaking and wouldn’t eat. We decided to take her to the vet to see if we could do anything else than what we were.

The vet gave her another set of x-rays which showed improvement in the fluids on the lungs, but in doing so it revealed the real cause of her cough and fluid buildup. She had lung cancer! The cancer pressed against her heart causing it to swell, and the cancer spread throughout. There was nothing we could do. She was either going to come home with us, maybe live through the weekend as she was already on her last days and slowly suffocate or we could put her down.

We decided that having her suffocate was not the right thing to do so we put her to sleep. We promised her that her legacy will live on through Gladdy’s Goodies, we promised her we will not let this company ever fall and we will keep dog’s tails wagging.

Now every time a dog’s tail wags from Gladdy’s Goodies, Gladdy gets her wings.

The cancer most likely came from her pancreas where we believe it started. It was most likely caused from the tainted treats as exposure to anti-freeze can cause cancer, but in a dog with a history of skin cancer and a weakened pancreas from those bad treats; we’re almost positive this stems from those treats we gave her two years ago finally finishing the damage.

Gladdy and us want to remind you to please read the labels of your pets food and treats. Doing so will help you avoid the tragedy of dead pets or pets with life long, life altering conditions and pain. 3 mins of my time could have saved Ali and Gladdy.

Gladdy Dowd
2005 – 2020
Gotchya Day December 24, 2013