It takes a special kind of brave soul to rescue Dalmatians. I love them, but I think one was enough. My wife and I adopted Mr. Freckles in October of 1993. He had run away from an abusive owner, and took up residence in the backyard of a friend. She kept him for a year or more, but needed to offload the food and vet bills.
Freckles was small for a male, barely 60lbs. But he was all Dalmation - high in energy and spirits, inquisitive, funny. But also not so good with children, a bit too protective, hard to train, and with horrible separation anxiety. But he was a great running partner and loved a good house party. We had to hire a contractor to build the Ft. Knox of dog runs because he couldn't be left in the house, a crate would not restrain him, and nothing would keep him in the yard. When he learned the electric dog fence wouldn't kill him, he would lay up against it while digging out.
In the end he developed pancreatitis and also had cataracts and arthritis. We put him down on Sept 19, 2003, probably a month or two too late.
I just put down his replacement this week - 1/15/2008. Shadow was a senior Collie, a tri-color we took in just over four years ago. He was everything Freckles was not - mellow, friendly to all, not an ounce of aggression, never did anything wrong. Our friends would ask to keep him when we travelled - that's a high compliment to a dog. Alas, Shadow developed severe arthritis early in 2007. Anti-inflamatories gave him some relief, but by the end of the year he could just barely hoist himself up to a standing position. He was a trooper through the holidays, travelling and staying with us at the homes of family and friends. But after the first of the year he started having episodes of severe pain; he would lie on the floor crying and yipping. We gave him pain pills, but his discomfort seemed to increase every day. After a few near sleepless nights - he'd always been the king of snoozers - we made the difficult decision. He's back home now, albeit in a cedar jewelbox. We're trying to decide on a suitable final resting place.
So it's been something of a sad week around the JimY household. But we take some solace in having given the Collie a good home for the last 4 years, after he had a rather rough first 8 or so. I just wish it wasn't so darn quiet around here...
Cheers,
- JimY
