Dec. 19 1993 —– Jan. 31 1998
It all started back in May of 1991 when my husband and I
decided to purchase a female boxer pup which we named Lady.
Lady is the sweetest most loving dog I have ever know.
When Lady was a year and a half old we decided to mate her.
All went well and shortly there after she gave birth to eight beautiful
fawn boxer puppies four males four females.
I can not explain the joy these puppies brought to my life.
A lot of work but well worth it.
We had decided to keep the biggest male of them all and we
named him Jasper after his father.
Jasper was a real mush and very much attached to me and I to him.
I work from home so I was always around right from the moment he
was born until the day he died in my arms. I had always had dogs
growing up but this little boy stole my heart.
He was almost human the way he communicated with me.
The strangest thing about the bond was that I almost felt like he was
someone in my past who was deceased and they had come back to me in
the form of this dog.
He was the spitting image of a large healthy happy boxer full of life and
bursting with muscles. Jasper and Lady loved playing together all day
both inside and outside. Than one day in July of 1997 the dogs were playing
out back and when I let them in Jasper started to walk with very stiff legs and
all of a sudden he just fell over on his side.
I went running to him and he was awake with his eyes open and after a
few seconds he stood up and everything seemed fine.
I immediately took him to the vet and one of the associates looked
at him listened to his heart and said he looked fine.
It could of just been a freak thing that happened.
Well it wasn’t a freak because it happened again two days later.
This time I saw my usual Vet and he did an EKG and sure enough we were
dealing with a dilated heart. The cardiologist was brought in and I
was told we were looking at less than a year left together.
Jasper was put on four different medications and we made weekly visits
to the Vet during the next six months. Some friends and family members just
couldn’t understand why we were spending so much money on a dog that
we knew was dying.
I cried for days straight after he passed away in my arms and swore I
wouldn’t get another dog because I just couldn’t go through that pain again.
But Lady was very depressed because her playmate was gone and
I was also feeling the loneliness. About three months after Jaspers death
I did purchase another male boxer (Mason) who we nicknamed little
brother in memory of his big brother Jasper.
I know that Jasper is happy knowing that another dog is
receiving the love each dog deserves.
June
| Jasper |