Uno, Howard & Mason

I truly believe that each dog we share our lives with comes to us to teach us a life lesson. Not all of us are attuned to what the lesson is, especially at the time you are living with your companion. For some reason, we don't think much about the possibility of losing our dogs at a young age, and maybe not at an old age either...I've not been fortunate to have my soul dogs live to ripe old ages as most of my parents dogs did , so I'm not completely sure that this holds true for me or not. We just expect them to always be there waiting for us. So when they leave us at a young age we are left confused and devastated.

Uno, Howard and Mason, were not easy dogs, not that any dog is easy! They were adopted, other peoples throw always, not because they were bad dogs, just became inconvenient for their owners when their lives changed and they could no longer cope with them and make the sacrifices necessary to keep them. I am glad that it was me who was able to take them in, to give them a good home for the duration of their lives. They each gave me far more then they took. Uno was a high strung crazy boy of seventeen months when he came to live with us. To say I adored him would be an understatement. He was my ticket to freedom. After having given all my time and attention to being a mother for ten years, and not treating myself to the gift of owning a dog for all that time, Uno came into my life when my youngest went to Nursery School. I had been looking for a 18 month old Red Male Doberman through rescues, and not having any luck getting one that would fit with my young growing family. At a neighborhood BBQ, I had mentioned to a friend that I was ready to adopt. A week later she left a message on my answering machine telling me if I wanted to take her Uno for a trial and see if it worked out, she would love for us to take him in. He was a gorgeous Weimaraner out of Champion parents who they co-owned with the sires breeder. My friend was in the process of a divorce, so Uno had never been socialized, trained and didn't have the active life like that breed demands, he also was not going to be able to be shown....because he didn't like strangers touching him. After a month, they signed him over to me. I now had another hiking partner. I could go into the woods again...ALONE! I was in heaven. I have been afraid to hike alone for my entire life, so having a large dog with me, enables me to get out there with little fear. Uno was a really good boy in the house, never an accident nor was he a chewer. He also didn't leave the yard. He became completely devoted to me, to the point of obsession. He was not a good family pet, his world revolved around me. Lucky for him I was a stay at home mom, and he had my undivided attention while the boys all were in school. We got out hiking a few days of each week, and he always kept me in his line of sight. His prey drive was insane,he managed to kill off most of the boys small pets in a few months time. He could grab squirrels, jumped on deer,chased bears, attacked fish,frogs and even earth worms. If it moved....it was fair game to him! He would have made someone an awesome hunting dog. Hikes were never peaceful, as he was always crashing through the woods after potential prey. He was a complete piece of work and I loved him dearly.

After a few years, while I was volunteering at the local human society, I saw a sad old G.S. Hair Pointer sitting in the back of a kennel, shaking. Poor pathetic old man Howard. He was skinny, covered with kennel sores and fatty tumors, he was completely deaf too. I had to get him out of there. Well pathetic lasted about five minutes after he came home to live with us! He was a crazy nut job! Had severe OCD and so hyper he drove us insane on a daily basis. He would spend entire days pacing around our home. He was about twelve, we figured he would last about a year, nope not with all the fun he was having at our home! He wasn't about to miss the most fun he had his entire life. At one point during his stint with us we thought he was on his last leg, so I started cruising Petfinder.com and happened upon Mason. Howard's ailment which we thought was a stroke, turned out to be an ear infection, he was back to normal very quickly.

Mason was another Weim, three years old and his owners were having issues with him and his litter mate brother fighting, the brother was dominant, and they were having their first baby and decided they didn't want to deal with the dogs any longer. Mason was a sweet guy, also not too well socialized or trained. He had also had a minor seizure that the prior owners put off to stress from the constant aggression from his brother. Well little did we know, it wasn't minor at all, it was full blown epilepsy, which we learned all about, starting thirty six hours after he came to live with us. I wanted to return him immediately and my hubby thankfully said...NO, you took him and you will deal with him. He was right. My hands were very full, three large dogs all with major issues....YIKES what had I done to our already chaotic lives? Mason also developed another problem after we put him on meds to control his seizures....he was food obsessed. He ate himself up to 113 pounds. He was obese. I was able to get him down to 99# but it was a daily battle to keep all the food in the house put away. He was also...a poop eater.

It was a crazy year and a half that we had all of them together, for the most part Uno was the boss and no one messed with him, but he was never again really happy. He had to share me. I think it wore him out, he seemed to stress about me giving either of the other two any attention. Here I thought that I was giving him playmates and I was actually turning his world upside down. Howard spent his entire last year completely incontinent and then started losing his bowels. His hind quarters were getting really weak from arthritis. My Dad had passed during the middle of Howard's decline, and neither hubby nor I had the heart to do anything about Howard's worsening condition during all the sadness of losing one you loved so much. I had become a slave to the dogs, seizures, constant poo and pee clean-ups, food stolen off of counters, out of closets,even hot pots off of the stove. Two neurotic dogs and a seizure dog, this is the world my hubby thinks back to when I talk of adding another dog. I seem to forget all the bad and look at the positive.nHoward finally got to a point that he was no longer having fun, and we decided it was time. Our household was much more peaceful, and smelled much better, the boys could again have their friends over without being embarrassed. I thought we had many more years with the two Weim boys, but that was not meant to be. Six months after Howard was PTS, Uno developed a slight cough. My sons thought he was doing it for attention, I took him to the vet a couple of times and they could find nothing wrong with him. Summer came and he was kenneled two times and after the second stay came home very thin. I took him to the vet and demanded they do an X-Ray of his lungs, I knew in my heart something was very wrong with him. Well I was right....he had a huge mass in his lung. I was completely devastated, there was nothing we could do except keep him comfortable. I had expected him to live to be fourteen like his mother. I went home, and started researching dogs and diet, and put him on a canine cancer diet. My mom cooked him his first batch of food. How I wish that I had looked into what was in kibbles before it came to this point. Uno loved his new food and only missed one day of eating before we put him down. He also went on short hikes until a week before. The day of his last hike, he had seizures that night, so we knew the cancer was in his brain. Horrific time for me. That week I smuggled Mason out of the house for our first hike alone. The song Dust in the Wind was playing on the radio as we arrived at the park....I was so sad, I couldn't keep from crying, my time with my beloved Uno was almost over. Mason....seemed VERY happy. His life was changing for the better. He was allowed to sit up front in the car instead of the way back. The last three days of his life I carried his 80# body up and down the stairs so he could sleep with me. It was amazing that he kept going when he was so sick. He never even had an accident in the house. I quit my volunteer time at the hawk watch so I could spend every available moment with him. I invited all his friends over to visit, even his prior owners. Everyone poured their love into him. I took him to work with me the last two days, he slept on his bed as I gazed my eyes on him for my final hours. Everyone told me I'd know when it was time, and they were right,while at work with me, he stared strait into my eyes with a pleading look, he had enough, it was if he spoke to my soul. We brought Uno to the vet with his favorite blanket, he went very peacefully while looking deeply into my eyes. It was a privileged to have shared his life. I brought the blanket home and Mason smelled it, looked at me in horror and ran away. He wouldn't come near me for the rest of the night. He seemed depressed, so we all began to dote on him. He flourished with all the attention. It was fall, so I could take Mason everywhere I went in the car. He had a new wonderful life, and we discovered, he was the sweetest dog we ever owned, he could smile. He had smile muscles. We had never noticed this about him. We all fell in love with him. Peace had come over our home. We had one sweet good dog. Well it didn't last. I remember trying to remain in a good frame of mind for New Years because my Dads 2nd anniversary was on January 6th. New Years eve we were all sitting around and I had Mason's head on my lap, just loving him up. Our friends asked about his seizures, and I said he was over due by a couple of weeks, his seizures came about every three months, severe full blown gram-mals, up to seven in a episode. January 2nd we woke up, kids headed back to school after Christmas break, except for my oldest son who was in college, it was apparent that Mason was not right....he didn't jump up on the door handle to let himself back in after doing his business that morning. Hubby let him in, and I took one look at him and said....he is going to have a seizure...and he did..... and they never stopped. After twelve hours of hell my poor baby had to be PTS. It was one of the most horrific days I've ever lived. My heart was smashed in to pieces. I would never be the same again.

What the three boys taught me besides patience, was to no longer trust traditional dog care. Although I always leaned towards the Peace Love and Tofu way of raising my sons, I didn't fully do it for my dogs. I had learned a lot about immunizations because of Mason, and I stopped being a GOOD owner, and started refusing to vaccinate every year. I also wouldn't give him heart worm meds, nor put any flea or tick preps on him. But I never questioned his diet. Trusted that the people making kibble must know what they are doing. After Uno's cancer diagnosis, I began my research in to canine diet. Funny thing is...all my other pets had always been fed Species Appropriate diets. Even my turtle Pee-Wee hat I got at only eight years old...wasn't fed turtle food, that is why I had him until I was 36 years old, if he had been fed the commercial food available back in the late 60' he would have died with the millions of others that suffered for their entire short lives. What my three crazy dogs taught me most of all...was to question everything, what we feed them, how we exercise them, their quality of life, what we put into their bodies, what training methods trainers use, that don't feel right, all in the name of trying to be a good dog owner. Knowledge is available to us all and when we know better, we should do better!

My Petey has benefited from all the knowledge I gained by knowing and loving those three dogs. His life has been very different because of them, and so has mine. Thank you Uno, Mason and Howard for being my dogs, I wish that I had done better for you all. You were all loved.