Today is a mixed feelings day. A day where we lose a friend and companion, and yet at the same time, his suffering is gone.
Our dog Gabe had developed an autoimmune disease that we have been watching and treating for many years now, and it has been slowly catching up to him. When we first started to treat him, we noticed improvement. He seemed back to his normal happy self, for awhile. Then we noticed the medication had some new symptoms. Decreased appetite, blood in his urine among other things. We tried to get a balance of medication and diet, buying him expensive dog foods. (Jer stopped here, unable to finish so I'm going to try.) Eventually the medication didn't give him any relief. Then neither did his diet. He didn't like the expensive food anyways and would often go days without eating. When we realized he would eat his breakfast and dinner and often more if we just fed him pedigree, we thought at least he'd put on weight. And he was happier. If only for a short time.
What makes Gabe so special? Let me tell you about an unbelievable dog and his fight to live many times over. Gabe was the third and last puppy born to our first German Shepherd, Diva. He probably should have died that night but Jeremy finally pulled him out after being stuck in the birth canal for 30 minutes. He was gasping for air almost the whole time since Diva had licked off the sack. He amazed us by immediately latching on to mom. We knew he was going to be tuff. A few days later, Diva stepped on him and he didn't stop squawking for an hour. After talking to the veterinarian he said there was very little that could be done for him if he did have internal damage since he was so young. He seemed to be ok and turned out to be the alpha of the litter. He also preferred to be outside and aloof. When it came time to sell the puppies we had to choose the best fit for some friends who wanted one of the two males. I had grown very attached to the other male, Chance, and wanted to keep him. Since they would have an outside dog we thought Gabe would be a better fit for them, also. His strong will and their dedication were a good match that first year. I believe it was his first night with them that an owl tried to carry him away. His persistent yelping got them to have mercy on him and discover he really was in danger and not being a troublesome puppy.
When he was 6 months old he managed to jump over their wood fence that enclosed a pool and land in the water. It was winter and extremely cold outside. Again his persistence in barking got him rescued. They treated him for hypothermia the best they could and he bounced back.
We took him to his first show in the spring and got lots of attention for his conformation and "look at me" presence. I had huge hopes of making him a champion.
I'm not sure when this next life threatening event happened to him. I think it must of been after the show because the weather was very nice. I was with Ana and Jorryn dropping Gabe off at his owners after watching him while they were on vacation. They have a giant swing with a specially made wood seat so the little kids wont fall out while being pushed. It's very sturdy and I was pushing Ana in it. I'm thinking the arc was about 12 ft, much higher than just any swing. Gabe ran thru just as the swing came down and hit him in the side of the head knocking him out cold for just a few very long seconds. I'm still horrified when I think of it. He was bleeding from the mouth and could hardly stand. I knew the family would be back soon and by the time they were he was acting normal. They agreed to keep an eye on him but as far as I know he never showed any signs of trauma. He eventually developed a white line across that side of his head that we thought must be from that accident.
We moved to Lebanon in August 2006 and just before we did, Gabe's owners, felt it better for him, (and I think for me too) to give him back to us. We had intentions on finding him a "show" home. But Gabe had a very dominate, stubborn temperament that quickly made me realize he would be too aggressive in the show ring, and with the wrong owner, dangerous. We had him altered and with in a week he was a different dog. It was night and day. He loved everybody and even other dogs. It didn't take Jer long to realize I wouldn't let him go again and Gabe had always been Jer's favorite. He even became the kids favorite and almost everyone who met him. He was 3 yrs old when he when discovered the auto immune disease. The first vet that we consulted, said she was so sorry and that there wasn't much that could be done. I finally found a vet with experience with his type of disease and she helped maintain him comfortably for a year. With more research I found that I could help him with diet.
When eventually even the diet wasn't helping, his discomfort was more than Jer and I could bare. It's an extremely hard and agonizing decision to make that the quality of your beloved pet it more important than the quantity. He was a huge part of our family and will be greatly missed.
