Tag: love and relationships

I am a self-admitted animal lover: always have been since my earliest memories. I can still remember my first pet, a German shepherd puppy given to us by our babysitters. We named him Bandit because of the dark markings around his eyes.  I loved that dog so much and it was my responsibility to feed him, clean up after him and make sure he had water. Bandit slept in the garage out of the weather, without a crate. One evening when I was about ten years old, he got out of the garage. I was devastated and we couldn’t find him. I always hoped one day we would find him and then my mother told me he had been hit by a car that night he escaped the garage. I cried.

I always knew I’d have more pets. When I was about 21 years old, I adopted not one but two seeing eye dog rejects who were about a year old. A male named Flex and a female named Bit. There was nothing physically wrong with these dogs. They just didn’t grade out to be service dogs, but they were well trained pets for a home! I loved those dogs and cared for them like they were my children. 

If you’ve read my previous blog then you know I went to Graduate school so my mother happily cared for them while I was away.

I kept Flex and Bit at the house during the house rebuild from the fire as it is hard to rent and keep two large German Shepherds. Ann and my father were a tremendous help at that time, even with the dogs as we needed to go over there and be responsible pet owners like I was with Bandit. During the rebuild Flex died of Bloat or gastric torsion and I felt a deep lost feeling it was a failure on my part. I wasn’t with them as much while we build the house, so I felt guilty that I didn’t see the signs. I was able to save Bit from the same fate just by chance.

A few years letter I decided I was time to get a couple more dogs so I imported two German Shepherd pups from Germany.  The male named Winner vom Winnloh AKA Ajaye, and a female named Esra vom Wingerts-Graben AKA Blaze. I crated, housed, obedience and Schutzhund trained them. I took them to the veterinarian just like I would go to the doctor.

Bit loved those pups and at only six weeks when I got them, they were her children no doubt. That’s me, Bit and Blaze during the rebuild, of course Ann is taking the picture.

Bit, as she aged, became lame due to a herniation in her spine. I took her to UC Davis Veterinary Hospital to be evaluated along with a local vet who was experienced with the issue. Given her age and the amount of recovery time I opted for the locals vets procedure. Thankfully, with a ton of rehab on our part she rebounded and live for several more years before she died in her sleep.

My plan with the younger dogs was to breed them and raise German Shepherds but due to a genetic illness Blaze had called Pannus, I ended up neutering both dogs. Ajaye lived to be about ten years old but died unexpectedly of an undiagnosed tumor on his heart that ruptured. My poor boy. That was a dark day to see the puppy that I raised just die so suddenly.

Blaze the “million-dollar dog” I called her. It’s because she was one rambunctious dog! She would escape the kennel, by get through not one, not two, but THREE fences to run wild in the neighborhood. Her nose was always pink from digging and her teeth broken from chewing through boards. She managed to get herself on the Potential Dangerous Animal list costing us not only time dealing with animal control but money. She was a holly terror, but we loved her. She would get these crazy cysts that had to be removed. She ultimately came down with Doggy vertigo which was the beginning of the end and at the time we put her down the vet told us she had bone cancer so there was nothing we could do.

Ultimately, why do I share? It’s all about responsibility and ownership. I always felt personally responsible since day one whether it was Bandit, Flex, Bit, Ajaye or Blaze. I signed up for that responsibility which entailed all the things that go into raising our four-legged family members. I believe it is truly a gift, a blessing to take ownership of animals that can bring so much joy and life into a household.