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MIKE'S BEST FRIEND A COLLIE OF 9 YEARS DIED ON MONDAY. MIKE AND I HAVE BEEN TOGETHER 15 YEARS, HE IS A C5-6 QUAD AND WE GOT KARMA WHEN HE GRADUATED COLLEGE AND HE TRAINED HER. SHE SLEPT UNDER HIS WHEELCHAIR UNTIL SHE COULD NO LONGER FIT AND THEN SHE JUST LAYED BESIDE HIM.

WE BOTH CRIED A LOT AND REALLY MISS HER. WE ARE GETTING MARRIED IN SEPTEMBER AND ARE SAD THAT SHE WILL NOT BE THERE. WE DO NOT HAVE ANY CHILDREN TOGETHER SO ALL OF OUR ATTENTION WENT TO OUR 2 DOGS. THE OTHER ONE IS A LHASO APSO AND SHE WOULD TERRORIZE THE COLLIE.

JUST WANTED TO SHARE WITH ALL YOU ANIMAL LOVERS. i WROTE A TRIBUTE TO HER THAT I AM PUTTING IN OUR SCRAP BOOK SO ONLY READ ON IF YOU HAVE KLEENEX


Karma
She had been ill for the past month. While she was getting her beauty treatment her regular groomer noticed sores on her belly and suggested to get her to a vet soon. I did not delay in making an appointment for her. She was diagnosed with a Staph infection and was given antibiotics for her skin infection. She only cleared for about a day during her course of antibiotics and creams and became incontinent of urine and started having diarrhea. Another phone call to the vet and she was placed on another antibiotic to treat her loose stools and given a new diet of yogurt and special dog food for a sensitive digestive tract. When that didn't clear blood work only revealed elevated globulins which meant she had some sort of infection she was fighting. The 4th week showed to her favr and she appeared to be getting better. No more incontinence, her drinking seemed to lessen, her sores were healing.

There she was in her usual spot, on the morning of June 5th, 2006. Her eyes wide open she lay on the cool tile bathroom floor. In my head I told her to get up or I soon would think she was dead, as I so often did since her age settled into her hips. She would delay in getting up if she were extra tired. I reached down to pet her and tell her to go outside with me and she did not blink. She did not move. Karma lay still. Realization struck my every nerve. I cried out to Mike. He woke instantly feeling the urgency in my voice.
I yelled "Mike"!
He replied "What"?
I spoke "Karma is dead" and began sobbing uncontrollably
He responded "No! No! No! It can not be"!
Lea, the Lhaso Apso jumped off the bed and ran under it, something she never does.
I hugged Karma and said I was sorry. Continuing to cry and not knowing what do I covered her with her blanket, leaving her head exposed so she could “breath” and Mike said he wanted to see her. I helped him get out of bed. Karma lay in the doorway blocking his wheelchair to enter. I left them alone and coaxed Lea out from under the bed to take her out.

The phone rang and it was an employee calling off. Not wanting to deal with anyone else’s problems I cut her short. I called my good friend Cindy to let her know about Karma and let her deal with the call off and I called my boss, both being dog lovers they were very compassionate to my situation.

It seemed like a long time to reach 7:00 am when I knew my vet’s office opened. I called right at 7:00 and there was no answer so I called again at 7:01 and Jody the receptionist answered. I told Jody that we found Karma and she remembered our last name and our recent visits to the doctors. She asked if I mind that she put another call on hold. Jody was kind and gentle and told us we could bring Karma in righ away and she gave us information on cremation that we requested.

I tried lifting her and was almost able to pick up all 90 pounds of her but I just couldn’t quite manage. So I told Mike I was going to ask the neighbors for help. I knocked on our neighbor Bob and Nancy’s door. Bob had once picked Mike up off the ground when he fell forward out of his wheelchair. No one was home and one of the contracted painters for the development, Soupy pulled up to do work on Bob and Nancy’s home. I asked Soupy if he was feeling strong today with a shaky voice. He looked at me puzzled so I started to cry and told him that my dog just died and I needed help getting her into the van. He quickly volunteered and gathered another contractor that does the cabinets as he pulled up behind him.

We all walked together in the house and they both greeted Mike and then went to Karma and knelt down to figure out how to get her to the van. Soupy said he would get a drop cloth to put under her and I volunteered a quilt I had in the van but they declined. When Soupy returned with the cloth I picked her head up while soupy pulled the cloth under her and Bob pulled the cloth under her back side. We all picked her up and very reverently Soupy told me they would carry her. I walked to the van with them and we laid her on the folded back seats. I thanked them for their trouble and they gave us their condolences. Soupy said he did not mind going to the vet’s with us and helping us get her in but I reassured him they would help me there.

We all got into the van, Mike held Lea on his lap and we drove away. It was a trip that we just quietly dorve reminiscing about Karma and we cried. Mike and I lost our beautiful best friend and missed her.

Karma was quirky dog but she was wonderful. We remembered when we first picked Karma out of the litter of 11 girls and one boy. We found it so adorable the way she lowered her head when picked her up. We remebered her first visit to the vet and how she peed all over him when he picked her up. We remembered how she ate all the stuffing out from underneath our bed until I crawled under it and removed it all. We remembered how she lived under Mike’s wheelchair until she could no longer fit and how he would have to get a stick to get her out. We remembered how long it took us to house train her because she was afraid of daylight. We remember the time she got scared because her leash got caught on a lid to a sewer and she took off dragging the metal lid behind her. We remember how when we ordered pizza for delivery Mike set the pizza box on a glass table and when he backed up the glass end table came crashing down causing Karma to panic and runaway hiding under the bed and thereafter having a fear of boxes. Or when we changed something around in the room she would not enter it. We remember how she carefully picked all the leaves off of ten of our plants on the patio bringing them into the living room and dropping them carefully around the room. We remember how we came home and thought Karma was walking funny and saw her distended belly and we realized she chewed a hole in the bottom of her dog food and ate till she was stuffed and waddled like a 9 month pregnant woman. We remember how gentle she was with children. We remember her loyalty and how she knew the command “get Mike”. We remembered how she would inevitabley try to lick Mike’s feet when he got out of the shower and snap at me when I scooted her away. We remembered how she loved her “ice cookies” over a beef treat. We remembered how gentle she was with small bunnies and baby birds, always inquisitive but she never hurt them. We remembed how upset she would get if Mike slipped out the backdoors without her. And how she hated car rides but they were always worth it since she would be with us on some sort of adventure. We remember how she loved to get a toy and have you chase her with it and if you didn’t she would pounce her paws in front of you and wag her tail and run away or when she and I would run circles around Mike. We remembered how upset she was with us when we left her for two days to go to an amusement park and we returned with Lea. We remembered how it took her two weeks to accept Lea. We remembered how she barked whenever I ran the vaccum. We remembered how Ginger (a cocker spaniel mix) taught her to bark at the mailman and she never stopped since. We remembered how gentle she was when she played with Lea and how she would lie on her back and open her mouth as if she would bite Lea in two but would always bite the carpet or a toy instead and she permitted Lea to jump on her and bite the scruff of her neck. We remembered how she knew the commands sit, lie down, shake, speak and how she played hide and seek. We remembered if she needed to go out she would nudge us with her nose and if we ignored her she got an impatient look in her eye and she barked once. We remembered how she preferred us to pet her bum and would always turn to let you stroke her backside. We remembered her how after work she faithfully greeted us with her tail wagging and gave us unconditional love. We remembered Karma and how wonderful and beautiful she was. We are so glad she was part of our lives and we miss her. Her collar rests on our dresser and her ashes will be returned to us soon.

[LadyPilot]

As a complete animal lover and childless by choice, I know only too well how devastating it is to lose a much loved family member.

My heart goes out to you because your pain is so deep and raw at the moment. Some people dont understand that a cherished pet can be loved just as deeply as a human child and the loss just as intense.

You did the right thing by writing down all the memories, its a good start to helping your heart heal.

Sending you a hug and kind thoughts.......

[Joed]

I'm terribly sorry for your loss.

I've loved all my pets, but every once in awhile (once in a lifetime, if you're lucky), you'll get blessed with one, such as your Karma, that seems to have an old soul.

Talk about her, write about her, gather up all your photos of her and honor her life, knowing that you've given her a good dog life...because you loved her unconditionally too!

That's just the thing with loving a dog....eventually, they always end up breaking our hearts. But it won't always hurt this bad, and you'll be left with all those many memories you've shared here, and when you think of her, you'll smile again.

[Gary Anderson]

Just wanted to add my bit. I so feel for your loss. My friend in USA has a disabled assistance monkey to help him and what a lovely friendly little chap he is (the monkey). He is trained to do everything and I mean EVERYTHING for my mate.

Now that my friend is learning to walk, the monkey is adapting and doing his best to help him because he realises that his left hand is weaker than the right.

Without Peter, I reckon Jake's quality of life would be a lot less meaningful. The love from animals is totally unconditional and as someone who also has no children (never mind a partner, wife or whatever) I would rate my animals above anything.

[car]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR THOUGHTS
MUCH APPRECIATED

[graphic]

So sorry about your loss, you must both be devastated. I can sympathise with you as I have an appointment with our vet at 3.30pm today. Our dog, an Old English Sheepdog of 10 years has athritis and is in severe pain. She's been on medication for a year but it doesn't work any more and she has great difficulty getting up, although when she's moving she's no too bad. We were told three months ago that we should consider putting her to sleep so I think today's the day. She's devoted to me and is always around my chair, and if I go out she lays by the front door until I get back. She's laying at my side right now and the thought of losing her is terrible. I so want to bring her home again today but I suppose I must think of what's best for her. Anyway, I'll wait and see what the vet says but I don't think it will be good news. So, heartfelt sympathy, I know just how you feel.
Clive

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graphic, on Jun 14 2006, 01:11 PM, said:

So sorry about your loss, you must both be devastated. I can sympathise with you as I have an appointment with our vet at 3.30pm today. Our dog, an Old English Sheepdog of 10 years has athritis and is in severe pain. She's been on medication for a year but it doesn't work any more and she has great difficulty getting up, although when she's moving she's no too bad. We were told three months ago that we should consider putting her to sleep so I think today's the day. She's devoted to me and is always around my chair, and if I go out she lays by the front door until I get back. She's laying at my side right now and the thought of losing her is terrible. I so want to bring her home again today but I suppose I must think of what's best for her. Anyway, I'll wait and see what the vet says but I don't think it will be good news. So, heartfelt sympathy, I know just how you feel.
Clive

Oh I am so sorry and hope all is okay. It takes a strong person to make the right decision. We were fortunate and did not have to make any choices. I sent a picture of our dogs.

[itsjustme]

I sometimes get silly online questionnaires from my friends and one of the questions is, "When was the last time that you cried?" It was a cold night this past January when my 19 year old dog J.J. died. She was the first dog that I ever had in my life. She shared 2 decades of my life. My heart breaks for you too.

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itsjustme, on Jun 16 2006, 09:27 PM, said:

I sometimes get silly online questionnaires from my friends and one of the questions is, "When was the last time that you cried?" It was a cold night this past January when my 19 year old dog J.J. died. She was the first dog that I ever had in my life. She shared 2 decades of my life. My heart breaks for you too.

19 years!!!!!!!!Wow. What type of dog was she?

[itsjustme]

She was half Chow and half Lab. She had much more the temperment of the Chow. She only wanted to be loved when she wanted to be loved. She would come and nuzzle under my arm to get me to love her and pet her and then when she was done she'd go and lay on the other side of the room but always in the room with me until the last couple of years before I was paralyzed and she got to laying right beside of my feet while I watched TV or was busy doing soemthing. She even started minding me. She was so stubborn.

When she was able to get up there she'd sleep on the foot of my bed unless I turned over and touched her and then she'd get all in a huff and get down and sleep by the side of my bed. I even helped her up for a few years but eventually she got too cranky and didn't want up anymore.

She usually wanted to be outside but anytime that I was sick or recovering from surgery or something she would stay by my side and just lay by my bed. Her love was a kind of a quiet unspoken love.