My Responses to Emails About Jake

SUMMARY: I responded to emails about Jake's passing.

Backfill: added Dec 14, 2018


Jake's versus Rem's seizures:

It's so hard to watch them go through it. This is my second dog whose last day was consumed with seizures. In a way I'm glad that they came all at once--I don't know how I could have lived week after week, watching and waiting and dreading the next one. Jake's seizures were so long and so bad and he was so terrible for so many hours after each one, I don't know that I could have put him through more anyway. [Remington's] seizures were short and recovery very quick, but came so fast after each other on top of known fatal cancer, so it was quite different.

Jake was a good boy:

Thanks for the nice note. He was a good boy right to the end. Well, if I discount the goodies in the car on Saturday. Which, actually, I did. I was annoyed but didn't scold him and kept telling myself, well, he's old, he deserves some slack.

Posted March 6 -- feeling the loss:

The worst part is all my agility dog friends. There seems to have been a rash of old familiar dogs going to the great bone in the sky the last couple of months. Each one hurts a bit.

It has been hard--some ways harder than Remington, some ways easier. I didn't expect a 15 year old dog to go on much longer. But he had been doing so well! Last week I was a total loss to society. By friday afternoon I was starting to function again. I'm doing OK. Until I have to do something like change all the "emergency--rescue my pets" stickers on the windows from 3 dogs to 2.

Posted March 8: Other dogs' reactions:

Tika and Boost don't seem to be particularly affected. First, because they've always been so focused on each other since Boost came to live here, and Jake was such a curmudgeon, in particular to Boost, so there was never a lot of interaction except negative. 

Secondly, they were both there while Jake was having seizures, and after I realized that they were both off the bed and huddling against the door looking miserable, I calmed them verbally and praised them and let them come back on the bed while Jake was recovering. So they both had lots of chances to sniff at Jake and see what was happening and in my own view of the world I think that they knew that something was amiss with him.