Animal Chatter

Normally my blogs are general in nature, but todays blog is going to be more personal, sort of a little bit of memories, which I’m sure a lot of you will unfortunately be able to relate to.

A little background about my German Shephard Kaiser to set the premise. Kaiser was born on a farm in Kentucky with 11 siblings to a man that didn’t want them. For all practical purposes they had no human contact. Food was thrown at them, and that was about it. A friend of mine came to know of their plight, and took the entire litter. Kaiser of all of them was the most bashful and would need a lot of human touch and companionship. Since I was a dog groomer and had my own business, I could take the dog to work with me daily and introduce him to a lot of new people, so she asked me to take him, which I gladly did.

The first couple months were very hard for both Kaiser and me. He was so scared, he would hide under the end tables and not want to come out, and I would lie on the floor beside him and talk and talk and extend my hand in friendly gestures. I would take him to work with me everyday, and he would hide in the corner of the car the entire way, often soiling himself or throwing up. We worked through this, and eventually he enjoyed his car rides and even came to like going to work with me. He wasn’t over friendly with the customers, but he loved their dogs. Much to humans chagrin, dogs will always pick another dog over a human, they are pack animals, and other dogs are their preferred pack.

When he was two years old, we adopted a companion for him, an abandoned Rottweiler named Zeus. They became instant friends and best buddies. They played together, ate together and slept against each other, they were inseparable. When Zeus had to have disc surgery and couldn’t walk for months, another blog in itself, Kaiser laid with him and took care of him, and gave him comfort.

But alas, in August of 2007, Kaiser was diagnosed with bladder cancer. While there is no cure for this cancer, and no surgical procedure to be done on him, all we could do was treat the symptoms from it, not the cause. He was put on antibiotics and I also had him on a plethora of holistic medicines as well as Knox gelatin for his nose bleeds. He would be asymptomatic for a bit and then show symptoms of this killer disease again  The house was adorned with plastic table cloths because he would frequently urinate everywhere. Eventually, we put a belly band on him which held a pad for accidents and dripping. I would highly recommend this for anyone who is experiencing any type of urinary problems with their dogs.

Christmas was approaching and we were all holding our breaths that he would make it through. I couldn’t bare the thought of losing him yet, and especially at what is to be such a joyous time of the year. My daughter who lives in Indiana with her family decided to visit us in Florida for the Holidays, to see Kaiser one last time, and say their goodbyes. He was fading rapidly, but when they arrived it was like they brought a miracle with them.

Their stay was going to be short, just 4 days, but long enough to accomplish what they came for. Upon their arrival I noticed Kaiser perked up. He ate and played and played and ate everything from pizza to donuts. His ball was never more then a couple feet from him, and he enjoyed every minute that he had left. He was a sight to behold, the Kaiser of yester years. A bittersweet moment for all of us, none the less, he brought us through the holidays with joy.

The morning they were leaving, he lay in the bedroom doorway watching them, lifting his head occasionally for a kiss or pat, but nothing more. From then on, the disease took its final toll, and Kaiser would not be spreading anymore holiday cheer. It was back to reality, his last hurrah was gone. Unable to even get up, or wanting to get up for a drink of water or go outside, he had given it his all, and gave us our Christmas miracle. He was euthanized at home the following day.