Blake came to us in September 2008 from a shelter in OH. Upon arrival, he spent a full day with our vets, who determined his age to be 10-13 years old, diagnosed him with Degenerative Myelopathy (DM)
http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/DM_Web/DMofGS.htm, arthritis and confirmed that Blake was Heartworm positive, Stage 4. Blake had not been well taken care of in his earlier life.
The slow kill method for Heartworm was not making it any better and our vets believed he was not a candidate of the injection therapy, along with this and the DM and arthritis, Blake was becoming more uncomfortable as time went on, even though he was on pain killers and supplements. His coughing increased, and he began to tire out more easily than before. He would fall and need help getting back up, and some days, all he wanted to do was sleep all day. Blake did not trust easily, and in the 4 months he was with us, we tried very hard to help him understand that we were not here to hurt him. He clearly did not have the best life before he came here. Through all of his pain and fear though, he did want so much to be loved and give love in return. He wanted to trust, he wanted to be part of a family. As much as his spirit wanted to go on, his body couldn't, and on Feb. 28th, 2009 Blake went on to Rainbow Bridge, and took a piece of our hearts with him. He helped to remind us the power of perseverance, love, patience, and most of all, simple kindness. I learned from him to find the strength against the odds to go on when it is thought impossible and to always listen to my heart. Blake-we love you and you will never be forgotten.
Your forever family,
Danielle, Mike, and Brianna
So this is where we part, My Friend,
and you'll run on, around the bend,
gone from sight, but not from mind,
new pleasures there you'll surely find.
I will go on, I'll find the strength,
life measures quality, not its length.
One long embrace before you leave,
share one last look, before I grieve.
There are others, that much is true,
but they be they, and they aren't you.
And I, fair, impartial, or so I thought,
will remember well all you've taught.
Your place I'll hold, you will be missed,
the fur I stroked, the nose I kissed.
And as you journey to your final rest,
take with you this...I loved you best.
~Unknown~
The BDBH Volunteers and Board of Directors would like express their heartfelt thanks to the following people who gave so generously to Quent and BDBH:
Christopher Rodler - Quent's Forever Foster Dad and BDBH Volunteer
Christine Holmes - Forever Friend to Rose and her Hannah Banana (surviving well with Mega-E)
David and Kathy Mallory - BDBH Volunteers
Price Jones - Quent's temporary foster mom
The Hunt Family - Forever Family of BDBH's Gracie
Heather Allen, D.V.M
and the entire staff of All Creatures Animal Hospital, E. Amherst, NY
and City Creatures Animal Hospital, Buffalo, NY
REST IN PEACE MY SWEET QUENT
It is with Heavy Heart and many tears, that my Sweet Boy Quent has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. Life teaches us some Harsh Lessons...
If we never felt Sadness, we wouldn't know Happiness,
If we didn't feel Anger, we may never know Forgiveness,
If we never shed a Tear, we may never hear Laughter
If we never faced Defeat, we wouldn't know Victory
Unfortunately I am feeling all the sadness, anger, tears and defeat. Rescue is "usually" about the Victories, the undoing of the injustices these animals endure. Today we have to experience the other side of Rescue. I question why Quent had to make the Long Journey, why such a Beautiful, Confident, Proud pup was dealt this awful hand. In the midst of all his pain and all he had gone through, he convinced me that he had the Will to Live, unfortunately his Body just was not strong enough. Through all this, he was a Fighter, a True Champion. He gave more to me than I could ever give to him. Always with Brightened Eyes when he saw me and a wag of his tail he looked passed his own pain just to feel the comfort of a hug, a warm hold. There was a reason he was sent, not sure why he was taken. I pray he passed knowing how much I loved him, how important he was to me and this world. He journeyed to his FOREVER HOME where he knew Love......He found his Forever Mom and his Forever Dad, Chris
Hopefully soon my heart will soften the sadness, forget the anger, stop the tears, and be able accept the challenges of defeat.
Rest in Peace my sweet Quent, Guard the Gates for Big Dogs, Big Hearts....
until we meet again, You will Never Be Forgotten
Love Always,
Your Forever Mom Rose
We lost Miranda 05/13/09 during emergency exploratory surgery for complications from her spay earlier this week. At this point, we do not know for certain what occurred, we do know her bloodwork did not show anything of concern.
It had been almost two months, since a local AC officer in TN called Price and he was trying to catch a GSD, so she ran up to help. After an hour plus of trying, Price was able to get a slip lead on a thin 2-3 year old sable girl. Price thinks she wanted to get caught. Price believed she had had pups that she recently weaned and she thought she had an umbilical hernia. She was held at the shelter for 5 days, no one came looking for her and she was released to Price and Price asked BDBH to commit to her.
Price named her Miranda!
Miranda was beautiful, sweet, shy girl who was just starting to enjoy her life.
Our hearts ache for Miranda and for Price, who saved her and helped her know love and security from a human. Please keep them both in your thoughts.
Rest in peace sweet Miranda.
Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh And talk of me as if I were beside you. I loved You so— ‘twas heaven here with you.
Isla Paschal Richardson
Life is never easy, and sometimes it’s never fair.
Decisions are hard, decisions are followed by what ifs,
And sometimes the answer is always up in the air.
Rescue is all about going in blind, giving a chance and taking a risk to save a life.
You pray and you hope all will go well, and a happy ending will result.
Unfortunately, rescue is also reality and sometimes reality is tough.
Understanding and accepting not all can be saved and not all can be rehabilitated.
Sometimes the scars are just too deep to overcome, the damage is too far done.
Safety becomes a factor, liability becomes a factor, fairness becomes a factor.
And when all options have been expressed, letting go is the fairest option of all.
BDBH’s made the difficult decision to let our BlackJack (BJ) go to the bridge on 10/16/2009. BJ left us in the arms of his loving foster parents. When we okayed our commitment to BJ almost 4 months ago, none of us knew we’d be facing such a decision. But over time, BJ showed he had some issues that we needed to address. His foster mom was concerned and reached out for help. BJ saw two different qualified trainers whom have both dealt with their share of dogs with aggression issues and he moved to one of our experienced foster homes. Our concern for BJ continued to grow when BJ continued to show aggression to those he knew and trusted. We didn’t understand why BJ reacted in such ways, with sudden outbursts of aggression that weren’t predictable and his triggers weren’t anything obvious. We had to ask ourselves how we could adopt out a dog in time that continued to show aggression to those he loved and trusted with no rhythm or reason. After much discussion and professional evaluation, we felt the fairest and safest answer was to humanely euthanize BJ. All of us at BDBH’s are saddened by this decision and it is never a decision any of us in rescue want to make be it a behavior or health reason. BJ was a sweet older man at heart, he loved attention, loved to play and had his way of worming himself into the hearts of those who knew him. He did a happy dance when his foster mom came home from work and so wanted to be a good dog. And he was. Somewhere down the road, something went wrong, but BJ couldn't talk and BJ can’t tell us why he felt the need to remain on defense and explode at times the way he did. BJ is now free from whatever held him back. RIP BlackJack, you touched many and will not be forgotten.
RIP Fyurie October 27, 2009
A life cut short,
no time to live and learn,
barely a chance to see the world,
but held tight to a caring heart,
during those last hours,
makes a memory forever,
and a peaceful goodbye,
that's what love is and you were loved.
Fyurie was one of BDBH's youngest rescues at only 3 weeks old. He had just arrived from North Carolina with his 5 other siblings (our F litter) after their mom had died and they were going to be euthanized. Fyurie was not in good shape and his foster mom who has much experience with orphaned puppies worked very hard that night to bring him back but he was too far gone. Fyurie died at 11pm the night he arrived in NY from aspiration pneumonia. Fyurie was with us for less than 5 hours but will remain in our hearts, we all wish he had a happier ending to a life that hadn't even started yet. RIP sweet Fyurie.
Fenway left us very suddenly early morning of December 30, 2009. Our sweet girl was up and doing what puppies do best, running around, playing and being super cute. She suddenly stopped, laid down and didn't wake up. Her loving foster parents did puppy CPR to try and revive her but she was gone. Fenway was a young healthy puppy, necropsy done by one of our rescue veterinarians showed no reason that would explain what happened. Sometimes bad things that have no reason or explanation happen and we can't stop them. With heavy hearts and sadness, we have to accept that it was Fenways time, for whatever reason. She joins her brother Fyurie whom we lost just hours after arriving at BDBH's with his siblings and their mom whom we never met. Their small family is now together at Rainbow Bridge. RIP Fenway, many hearts were touched by her in the rescue as well as her loving family that was ready to take her home and give her a loving home for life. Our deepest sympathies go out to them as well as her caring foster family.
It is with great sadness and a heavy heart(s) that we write another email like this again and so soon.
Lexus started showing signs of bloat late New Years Eve. We rushed her to the emergency vet, where they took her right back for radiographs which showed she had indeed bloated and even worse torisoned. BDBH's sweet Lexus went to the bridge last night around 10:45 PM on New Years Eve. Lexus would have been 8 years old in February.
Lexus came to us last year as an owner surrender because her elderly owner was going into assisted living. She fostered with Kathy Boone, had KCS repair surgery (dry eye) and adopted out a bit later. Lexus was unfortunately returned in August 2009 and fostered with Darcy and Michael for almost a month before she joined Brett and myself. We had some ups and downs while we got into routine and got to know each other. Her KCS caused her to need eye meds multiple times a day. She was a real trooper through having her eyes medicated up to 4 times a day and rarely complained. She had severe arthritis in both knees with possible ACL tears. She was quite an anxious dog for some time as well. Once we got her pain under control with medication and put her on Clomicalm to help her anxiety, she really blossomed. She was able to truly relax like we
hadn't seen before, would go out and enjoy a nice romp
with the rest of our dogs and not
come in lame. She was quite the spunky girl and she
grew on us very fast. Knowing Lexus was most likely
a forever foster, she became one of our own dogs to us.
We will miss her greatly. She was a sweetheart and
had a lot of love to give. My most recent happy memory
of her is after Christmas, we went and bought the dogs
some new toys, one being a yellow rubber chicken.
Lexus adored it. Most waking moments in the house,
she had it. In the mornings when we woke up and came
downstairs, she'd be waiting with the chicken in her
mouth.
RIP Lexus, you touched many hearts and will be missed.
We thought that fostering a litter of five German Shepherd puppies would be a fun adventure. While there were happy times with the "C" litter, Tim and I knew from the start that there was just something that was not quite right with Carmen. Carmen made the long trip with her mom and four other siblings from Greenville, Kentucky. This poor litter had a hard start to life and it was a constant up hill battle for all of them.
Carmen was the smallest of the litter and from the start we had been told that she was potentially blind. Carmen always kept to herself, and was not very active. Within a few days, we knew that there was far more going on heath wise with Carmen. On Wednesday morning Carmen began having what we thought to be seizures. By the afternoon we had her in our vets office and we heard the horrible word...Distemper. While we were not positive at that time if Carmen had Distemper we knew that this sweet little soul was suffering horrible seizures every 45 minuets. It was with a heavy heart that we knew it was best to let Carmen go to the Rainbow Bridge. While our Wednesday afternoon was terrible, Tim spent some special time with Carmen Wednesday morning and that is the memory that we will always keep of sweet little Carmen.
Fragile Circle
We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan.
--Irving Townsend
Our sweet big boy Ranger went to the bridge yesterday 2/20/2010 around 11:30 am. Ranger was sick Friday sometime during the day with very acute vomiting that we discovered when we came home at 5pm and just feeling blah but it was not bloat. We talked with the vet over the phone and got instructions to give medications, withhold food/water and let his stomach settle down. Around 10 Friday night he seemed a bit better, resting and vomitting had stopped. I checked him on and off all night and he was always resting in his crate. He was still very off- lethargic and painful at 6 when we got up Saturday morning, so we called the vet as soon as they opened and got him in. Right before we left, he had bloody diarrhea in his crate. We rushed off to the vet and in 30 minutes to get there he went into shock. The vets immediately got fluids going and got on the phone with the emergency vet to get him transferred over there, we just needed to try and bring him out of shock before we got him back in the car.
Once we got to the emergency vet they took him right back and got to work and ran multiple tests. Nothing was really adding up at all. Xrays and ultrasound showed possible mass in abdomen but they wouldn't know for sure without opening him up and they could not stabilize him- they tried for 4 hours while running tests. He continued to go downhill and was dying despite efforts to stabilize him and knowing he would not survive the surgery, we made the decision to let him go.
A lot of hearts were broken yesterday, not just mine as his foster mom or everyone in the rescue as caring people but also his potential adoptive family whom was waiting for him to come out yesterday afternoon for their home visit and to meet their dogs. The two young kids were so beyond excited and I know they are heartbroken and can't understand why. I myself can't even understand why. This was so extremely acute and sudden onset, there was no warning. I saved this boy from euthanasia 5 weeks back as I felt he wasn't the dog people were making him out to seem and having a soft spot for the big black male dogs, I wanted to give him a chance. And I'm so happy I did, he was an amazing dog, so easy and laid back yet very loving and playful.
