I remember when we brought home our ball of fur, it was a cold wintery day.. we had driven many hours to see the saint bernard puppies Mrs. Whipple had for sale. It was the fluffiest male that came to us first, and when we picked him up, he splashed us with sweet puppy kisses and we were his! Heart and sole, even before the papers were filled out.
We had MANY good times, he helped us raise our boys, he was thier gaurdian in the yard, bathtub, bedtime...always there. He was there when our little girl was born. He loved her so, he used to sleep under her crib. He was always so gentle with her. Then there was the time our middle son was three years old and he escaped from the back yard, Sebastian went with him! lol.. life is full of sweet memories.
Later in his life Sebastian was plagued with problems. First he was allegic almost everything, he had ear infections and skin infections..after trial and error, finally his vet decided he was allegic to his food, so he put him on prescription diet and that seemed to help.
Then one night to my horror, he woke me up. He was panting so hard and was drooling foam, his eyes wide and dialated, he could barely stand up or walk. The next day, I saw why he was that way..he was having seizures.
Over the next months our vet did everything he could. Testing for things they could, without sending him to the more expensive Purdue Hospital for a brain scan. We upped the doses of his meds several times, until there was no further we could go... we knew the day would come, but for 8 months we watched him suffer through the aweful siezures.. even though we faithfully gave him his meds it was so sad to watch them no longer work... we had to make the heartbreaking decision to have him put to sleep. He was not in his right mind all of the time, it was getting harder to trust him and it was impossible to leave him alone, even for short periods of time. January 9th. The single most worst day of my life so far.
We spent the day saying goodbye..all of our closest friends and relatives came by..shared last hugs and kisses with him.
We all sat around and stroked his soft fur, we held his giant head in our laps and cried together. We have never felt so sad. I brushed his hair one last time.
The children kissed him goodbye, right between the ears. When we left to go to the office with him he was so happy to be going bye bye in the car..it was so heart breaking.
We are so very thankful for the special time we had with him. Seems like 8 years just wasn't quite long enough. Sure would have been nice to have had another eight. I guess I know in my heart, he still sleeps at the foot of our bed, its just hard wanting to reach down and ruff up his fluffy ears.
I think he sent two angels in his place.
Echo and Rudy.. because, we have NEVER had two dogs before! He must have thought we needed two to take his place!! Probably right! He sure has left a big hole in our hearts.
Thanks to Seymour Animal Hospital for helping us through his last years and illnesses and for donating a monetary gift to Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine in Memory of Sebastian. |
