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Goodbye, Good Dog
14 years ago
General
It all began February 6, 2003. The Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder I was friends with via her son that went to school with me whelped another litter from the sweetest dog I had ever met up to that point. This litter had eleven puppies, and to the breeder's dismay, three were blonde with liver noses. She'd always bred Red dogs before, with black noses, and was biased against these little yellow potatoes.
It was one such potato that caught my heart. At three days old, I first held her. She was so pale she was nearly white. Her pink nose was precious. I was in love.
She grew, as all good puppies do, and was sold to a breeder in California at about 12 weeks old. She flew away from me with two siblings, and I resigned myself to her loss. I was happy beyond belief when she was returned a month later, due to some drama. I begged my mother to let me have this dog. I NEEDED this dog. And with high school graduation around the corner, I would have all the time in the world for this dog!
So I acquired Jade.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/Jade6.jpg
This was the day I took her home.
That summer, we grew up together. We learned together. We bonded. She was my best friend.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/jadepuppy2.jpg
She was gangly...
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/jadepuppy3.jpg
And she always looked at me like that.
We were inseparable.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/jadenkaren.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/cuteK&J.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/Si.....n&Jade.jpg
Jade accompanied me through college, boyfriends, moving five times, and the start of my marriage. She was always there for me, when no one else was, when it was too hard, or when I just needed the company. She eventually got a dog brother, and three cat brothers.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/beetle-jade.jpg
(but she never could get the cats to pose with her )
It was just last summer after my husband and I returned from a week-long trip in July that I noticed she was stumbling. It was ever so slight, I thought I was imagining things. Never the less, I watched her, always, and saw the progression. She was indeed stumbling, swaying, seeming weaker in the rear. We ran bloodwork, did radiographs, and put her on various things from painkillers to antiinflammatories, and nothing worked to fix her sway. All results were normal. My vet was stumped, and took her research further.
It was around September, I think, that she handed me a printout on Degenerative Myelopathy. She asked if the symptoms fit the bill. I was devastated. They did. So we sent blood out to a research lab that was running DNA profiles free of charge for research purposes, and her results were returned to us a couple weeks later.
Affected. My dog was affected for DM. And it had begun.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/web/pets/jade1.jpg
Slowly, but surely, she lost control of her rear legs, her bowels, her bladder. She lost muscle mass. She'd knuckle her back feet, causing wear on her toenails and the tops of her paws. She began falling earlier this year. It wasn't bad at first, a trip here or there only when she was being extra frisky, but it was happening. I watched on in horror.
By April I knew I couldn't let her continue to lose herself. Her mind was intact, the same happy dog I had forever it seemed, but she couldn't be who she wanted to be with legs like that. Her muscle wasting spread to her upper body, and two weeks ago I noticed she was knuckling in the front.
A month ago I made the appointment. THE appointment. The one that as I type this is making me tear up and I'm trying so hard not to cry, I haven't cried yet (not truly) and I don't want to give in, because I don't know when I'll stop.
Last Tuesday my husband took some lovely photos of my dear Jade and I.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5641.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5650.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5658.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5686.jpg
And yesterday, a glorious Friday the 13th, I laid to rest my best friend of eight years. I held her as her wasted body slowly sank to the table, her chin on my knee, forever at peace. Her body is being donated to research for DM, and what is left I'll be getting back in a white urn with a ceramic impression of her paw.
Goodbye, Good Dog. I am so glad to have known you, even if you were taken from me too soon.
It was one such potato that caught my heart. At three days old, I first held her. She was so pale she was nearly white. Her pink nose was precious. I was in love.
She grew, as all good puppies do, and was sold to a breeder in California at about 12 weeks old. She flew away from me with two siblings, and I resigned myself to her loss. I was happy beyond belief when she was returned a month later, due to some drama. I begged my mother to let me have this dog. I NEEDED this dog. And with high school graduation around the corner, I would have all the time in the world for this dog!
So I acquired Jade.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/Jade6.jpg
This was the day I took her home.
That summer, we grew up together. We learned together. We bonded. She was my best friend.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/jadepuppy2.jpg
She was gangly...
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/jadepuppy3.jpg
And she always looked at me like that.
We were inseparable.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/jadenkaren.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/cuteK&J.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/Si.....n&Jade.jpg
Jade accompanied me through college, boyfriends, moving five times, and the start of my marriage. She was always there for me, when no one else was, when it was too hard, or when I just needed the company. She eventually got a dog brother, and three cat brothers.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/beetle-jade.jpg
(but she never could get the cats to pose with her )
It was just last summer after my husband and I returned from a week-long trip in July that I noticed she was stumbling. It was ever so slight, I thought I was imagining things. Never the less, I watched her, always, and saw the progression. She was indeed stumbling, swaying, seeming weaker in the rear. We ran bloodwork, did radiographs, and put her on various things from painkillers to antiinflammatories, and nothing worked to fix her sway. All results were normal. My vet was stumped, and took her research further.
It was around September, I think, that she handed me a printout on Degenerative Myelopathy. She asked if the symptoms fit the bill. I was devastated. They did. So we sent blood out to a research lab that was running DNA profiles free of charge for research purposes, and her results were returned to us a couple weeks later.
Affected. My dog was affected for DM. And it had begun.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/web/pets/jade1.jpg
Slowly, but surely, she lost control of her rear legs, her bowels, her bladder. She lost muscle mass. She'd knuckle her back feet, causing wear on her toenails and the tops of her paws. She began falling earlier this year. It wasn't bad at first, a trip here or there only when she was being extra frisky, but it was happening. I watched on in horror.
By April I knew I couldn't let her continue to lose herself. Her mind was intact, the same happy dog I had forever it seemed, but she couldn't be who she wanted to be with legs like that. Her muscle wasting spread to her upper body, and two weeks ago I noticed she was knuckling in the front.
A month ago I made the appointment. THE appointment. The one that as I type this is making me tear up and I'm trying so hard not to cry, I haven't cried yet (not truly) and I don't want to give in, because I don't know when I'll stop.
Last Tuesday my husband took some lovely photos of my dear Jade and I.
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5641.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5650.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5658.jpg
http://oinkoinkmoo.com/dogs/Jade/IMG_5686.jpg
And yesterday, a glorious Friday the 13th, I laid to rest my best friend of eight years. I held her as her wasted body slowly sank to the table, her chin on my knee, forever at peace. Her body is being donated to research for DM, and what is left I'll be getting back in a white urn with a ceramic impression of her paw.
Goodbye, Good Dog. I am so glad to have known you, even if you were taken from me too soon.
whines
~whines
Tough stuff. Thanks for taking such good care of her.
