June 1 1992 —- July 26 1999
German Shepherd
I got Sheeba when she was exactly 8 weeks old.
I remember the first time I saw her…running around the breeders
yard with a little plastic cup in her mouth leading the pack.
I knew she was the dog for me. We took her home and she promptly
decided to poop and pee on the carpet.
She was a handful as a puppy but she turned out to be a very calm
and mellow dog. Everybody always said that Sheeba had a “sweetness”
about her and oh how true it was!
By the time she was 6 months old she knew all of her basic commands
and had also learned all of the “fun” tricks like rolling over shaking waving,
& giving kisses. She loved everybody especially children.
The vets were always happy to see her because she was always
so good no matter what.
When she was 16 months old she started having seizures.
She was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy. We put her on medication
and for a while it helped but the seizures still continued.
We took her to a neurologist and he put her on another seizure
medication which seemed to do the trick.
She still had seizures and “she always would” he said but they
were down to about 1 seizure every month or so.
After a couple of years of being on the medication her hind quarters
got very weak. It was from the medication.
However we cut down on the meds and she got much better and
the seizures were still down to a minimal.
No matter how sick she was she always found the strength to
give kisses and her unconditional love.
She was there when I divorced my husband and she knew how to
give comfort all of the time. We were inseparable.
I really can’t explain it but she was a very special dog in a
heavenly way. I know that she was sent to me for a reason.
Maybe because a lot of people would not have gone to the trouble
or the expense of her problems and would have had her euthanized.
Not Me!!!!
Well I got married again to my high school sweetheart and he
loved Sheeba and she accepted him immediately.
Unlike my first husband he had absolutely no problem at all with the
cost of keeping Sheeba well.
I did all I could for her for her 7 years that I had her.
Sheeba was doing great until July of 1999. She suddenly got very sick.
She had a temperature of 105 degrees and was very lethargic.
We had her hospitalized at our local vets for 5 days then we had her
transferred to the intensive care unit at Angel Memorial in
Boston Massachusetts.
Nobody expected her to make it through the night. But she did.
The thing was that nobody could figure out what was wrong.
Test after test after test revealed nothing.
They waited until she had been there 5 days and was stable
enough for them to do an endoscopy on her.
It revealed 7 ulcers in her stomach 2 which had almost penetrated
her stomach lining. The surgeon at the hospital refused to touch
them because he was afraid of rupturing them…that is how bad they were.
They started her on meds right away and every day thereafter she improved.
We finally got to take her home after 11 days of being there.
(Now at the time I was 8 months pregnant and my sister drove me the
2 hours to the hospital every day for the 11 days. We would leave home
at 8:00 a.m. and not leave the hospital until after the last visiting hours had
ended at 7:00 p.m. and this was a daily ritual for the entire 11 days.)
Any ways She was improving daily at home and we all had high
expectations that she would be okay.
She was on a lot of medications (14 pills a day) but her Dr. at
Angel Memorial wanted to be sure that she was covered so that she
would not get sick at all especially since her immune system was still weak
from being so sick.
On the 9th day that she was home she was acting strange…she would not
come in from under the deck and did not really want to be near me.
Let me just tell you that Sheeba was still physically weak and
needed help going up and down the stairs.
There were 13 stairs leading from our deck down to the backyard.
I was in the kitchen and I turned around and there she was
standing next to me! An angel must have carried her because there
was absolutely no possible way she could have made it up
those stairs all be herself!!
There was defiantly some kind of divine intervention.
I was shocked to see her and did not know how she made it but really
did not give it much thought at the time. She laid on her bed and
I proceeded to take a shower. When I got out of the shower
she had vomited and pooped on the floor and I knew immediately that
something was wrong. Just then my phone rang.
It was my sister doing her daily check on Sheeba.
I told her what happened and she offered to drive us to the vets.
I took her up on it and she said she would pick us up in less
than 10 minutes. I called our local vet and told them I was on my way.
Seconds before my sister pulled in Sheeba collapsed in my
hallway and I knew right away that she was having a heart attack.
When my sister arrived we carried Sheeba down a flight of stairs
and got her into the car and were on our way to the vets within 30 seconds.
Sheeba remained breathing heavily for the 6-7 minute drive
(which would normally take 12-15 minutes) but she was unresponsive.
Her doctor and a technician came running out upon our arrival and
got her inside in less than a minute. My sister and I waited in
the waiting room for approximately 25 minutes.
They came out to get us and brought us into a room and told us that
within 2-3 minutes of our arrival she went into cardiac arrest and
they did CPR on her for 15 minutes but could not revive her
and that she was gone. We were devastated!
And so were the technicians and Drs. There were 3 doctors and 4 techs
working on her to try and save her. She had been doing so well.
We saw her shortly thereafter and said our good-byes.
We had an autopsy done and the only thing it showed was
that she had a case of “overwhelming pneumonia”…It came on overnight
and nobody had a way of predicting it.
It should not have happened because she was on so many
different meds to prevent something like this from happening.
The other thing that the autopsy revealed was that her
ulcers had completely healed! They healed much quicker than expected.
We had Sheeba cremated and she is in a beautiful cherry urn
with her picture in the front of it.
She will always be with us and watching over us and I know that
someday we will see her again at the Rainbow Bridge.
For all she went through in her life I know that she is one of
Gods Special Angels. We will never forget Sheeba and
may God always bless her.
Why she had to physically go through all that she did especially
the last 3 weeks of her life we won’t know until we go to heaven.
We love you Baby Girl.
May God Bless you always!!!!
Carrie
| Sheeba Marie Lennon |