My name is Pamela. I got Sydney through a friend of a friend. She was the only girl puppy. When I went to pick out a puppy, I saw her sitting there getting totally pummeled by her brothers and just sitting there and letting it happen, taking it like a champ. That’s when I totally fell for her.
When it was time to pick her up, I found her sleeping by herself behind the bathroom door. I picked her up and she gave me a kiss and laid her head on my shoulder.
When I brought her for her first check-up, the vet(if you could call him that), did a check-up on her and said that she had mange, and a very low immune system, and that she wouldn’t survive very long and that I should just put her asleep.
Well, I told him that I was not about to do that, and left.
Well, six months later, I realized that I was going to move back to New Mexico, so I brought her for her shots and another checkup. I explained to the vet that I was told that my dog had a low immune system, and mange, etc… He did some basic tests on her and said “well, I don’t know what you did, but she does not have mange, and is in perfect health”.
Needless to say, she had absolutely awesome health for many years to come. Sydney was what I call THE perfect companion and best friend. Everyone that met her thought she was so awesome. Even people that didn’t own pets thought that if they could have a dog like her, they would have one in an instant. She always knew when I was sad and was there to help comfort me. Her favorite thing was just to be by my side
at every given moment.
She and I moved into my boyfriend (and now husband’s) house. He had a young boxer and a young german shepard. Sydney and the boxer (Cloyce) had an instant crush on each other and formed a “drool necklace” that went from her to him. It was the cutest thing.
They all had the cutest relationship together, until Cloyce (the boxer)died unexpectedly of internal lymph node cancer. Luckily, Sydney still had her brother Rudy (the shepard), and he still had her.
Sydney lived 4 more years, and started developing arthritis in her back legs. Then, she developed hip dysplasia. We took her to the vet, when we noticed that she suddenly started losing movement in her back legs altogether, (he also diagnosed her with a bad disk in her spine). He put her on medication which seemed to almost instantly work. Well, it worked for about 5 days, and then we don’t know what happened, but I’m thinking that the disk completely failed, and she couldn’t do anything with her lower half of her body. She also started crying in pain and couldn’t find a way to lay down. My husband tried to help her and she snapped at him, then our dog Rudy came over to see if she was okay and she bit him hard on the face. We called the vet to see if we could up her meds, or if there was something else to do, or stronger meds, etc…. He expressed that we could put her on stronger meds, but that they would have alot of side effects. By the way she is 12 years old at this point and surgery is not an option.
So… with much crying, and much thought, we made a decision to end her suffering and put her to sleep. We still to this day feel a bit of
wonder/guilt, hoping that we did the right thing. But deep inside we know that we probably did, and that she is over the Rainbow Bridge playing and jumping around with her boyfriend Cloyce.
We love you Sydney!
| Sydney |
| Ron, Pamela, Maia, and Natalia Rogers |