The Last Weekend

SUMMARY: I sent this email yesterday.

November 2006

I am completely unprepared to make this announcement. On Saturday, Jake ran in two CPE classes at the Championship level and Qed in both, even placing 3rd among 7 considerably younger dogs. He celebrated by getting into the front seat of my car while I was elsewhere and consuming 5 or 6 bags of truly gourmet dog treats, his own dream come true.

In the wee hours of Sunday, he had a major seizure and spent half a day at the emergency clinic recovering and being tested, none of which revealed anything. It wasn't the goodies, thank the gods. The main likely thing left would be a brain tumor, although we didn't scan for it. By afternoon he was the same old Jake, and I could only hope that it was a one-of-a-kind occurrence.

Last night, two more major seizures overwhelmed his poor little Jakey brain. This morning, although his tongue barely functioned and his mouth, mind, and body hardly better, Jake the Obsessive Chowhound proved to be indestructible and perked up as much as the damage allowed when I pulled out the goodie bag, and he took goodie after goodie from my hands, obsessively oblivious to anything else in the world, right up until the merciful drugs put him to sleep for the last time.

Oh, Jakey-man, my old guy.

Jake Performance III Jumpers video from 2003; in 2004 he was USDAA Top Ten in PIII Jumpers.