Daniel's Last Dog Has Gone Home

Sally

                   In 2004, we were in the process of relocating our dogs and alpacas to a new barn and acreage, in advance of having a home built there. During that time, we had a particularly hot July, and one of our dogs, a male golden retriever named Albert died as a probable result of angry yellowjackets, which likely caused an anaphylactic reaction. Since we were at the new place while waiting for the old one to close, most of the time, we probably missed his being stung and his passing, by only minutes. Sadly, we actually had animal epinephrine in the event that someone had a reaction when given standard immunizations. We were devastated at the loss of sweet Albert. It also made us wonder if our new acreage was repelling us rather than welcoming us.

                  A couple of weeks later, a female golden labrador, who could have been a sister to Albert arrived there. She had a cheap blue collar I noted had come from the Dollar Store.  She was in no hurry to leave. We fed and watered her, and tied her as we tried to locate her owners.  I put pictures of her with an information sheet at seven different local gas stations and grocers, and since we are very rural here, I placed some as far as thirty miles from here, since so many people commute. I contacted five animal shelters as lost animals in the country often originate from surprising distances, all to no avail.  No one called us, and no one locally had ever seen her before.  We took her to the vet to get her a rabies shot. They didn't know of anyone missing such a dog, and eventually they put us in touch with the local pound, and several weeks later, we adopted her.

                Daniel always enjoyed animals, and this one year old puppy was no exception.Daniel named her Sally. In fact, she also had a middle name, which was Ann.  She was very calm, sweet and devoted. She adapted quickly to our other dogs, and a couple of months later, we had her spayed. She enjoyed our farm animals, and she never ran off. She always stayed near the kids.

                Finally the new house was complete, more farm buildings came, and four glorious years passed. In 2008, when both my father and Daniel died, all of our animals missed Daniel desperately. Sally had a way of listening as if she understood all that you were saying. She had a very comforting manner also.  In the years which have passed, Daniel's dogs have all died one by one, each of them making it to quite advanced ages. Jake, the German Shepherd died the following year. Jared, the Siberian Husky also died in his teens. Rosheen, the Jack Russell Terrier was elderly, and Mark, the black labrador who had seizures, finally died at thirteen. Alvin, a tricolor hound who came to us as a rescue was said to have been twenty when he died. We even lost a couple of large dogs to advanced age that Daniel had never known, since Daniel has now been gone eleven years.  All through this time, Sally hung on. She was sweet and well, and it was hard to believe that she was as old as she was.  About three years ago, during her vet visit the vet prepared me for the probability that she would probably not make it through the Winter due to her advanced age. Of course, she did.

               In 2018 Sally had a stroke, and we knew from a dog we had some years ago who also had one, that if you can hand water and feed a dog through the acute phase of a stroke that many of them will recover almost completely within six weeks. So we worked hard to care for her. By six weeks she was nearly completely recovered, and the vet started her on an eighty milligram aspirin each day. We knew her days we limited, but we cared for this sweet dog as if she were human. My husband worked very hard to do her physical rehabilitation, and he has videos upon videos of her walking around the farm, in all weathers, sometimes with a coat on that resembles a turn out coat for horses. The vet was astounded at her longevity.

             The last few weeks have been rough. She has been failing, but she has not been in pain. We will euthanize our dogs if they are in pain, but she has just been slowing down, needing assistance with feeding, and using a sling in order to stand to use the bathroom and to ambulate.  Yesterday, she wasn't hungry and didn't want water. She wouldn't take my special home brew of lemon dog gatorade.   Sally passed relatively quickly and easily tonight at midnight with my husband and I standing beside her telling her how glad we were to have had her join our family.  She passed on to Jesus and to Daniel tonight, who now has all of the dogs he knew here on Earth, with him. There is only one more alpaca who remains on Earth that he knew, otherwise all of the animals here on the farm joined us after his departure.

           Thank you Sally for being such a wonderful part of our lives through joy and through sadness. Please know you are loved very much. Daniel must be thrilled to have you with him now, and you will see your old friends whom I believe are also with him, and with my father, who always loved dogs.   Godspeed, sweet Sally Ann.