Eileen and Mary, I am very
surprised at how painful this is for me to tell, but for my heroic girl
Sweet Pea, I will give the short version. LOL
Sweet Pea went to the bridge a year
ago June 15th and I still hear her walking my halls some nights. We think
she was about 16yrs if age and what a fighter.
When I got Sweet Pea she had already
been in rescue for over two years. She was going to be put to sleep
because of her condition, skin and bones. She would not eat and screamed
when touched and only layed in her bed and slept 24/7. She had been vetted,
x-rayed , teeth cleaned and ears had chronic infection. She came from God
knows where ( found on the streets of San Francisco), but assumed a puppy
mill, from her scarred feet and circle walking and destroyed mind.
What I know of Sweet Pea.. After
months of struggling to get her to eat, realized she didnt know how. She
struggle to dig up a piece of dry food with her foot and then once in her
mouth and chewing half fell out. It was an agony to watch her try to eat.
I had tried every kind of food to entice her to eat and people sent me foods
to try. I had $700 worth of x-rays to try to find the problem, skull, jaw,
teeth, throat, stomach, etc. and all where normal. I started trying to give
her Nutrical and she started licking it off a spoon. I then started
pureeing some canned food and she slowly started licking it. PRAISE the
LORD.. That was the key, from then on she licked pureed food twice a day
from a bowl while I held her, she would not eat it otherwise. She actually
was almost fat at one point. At the end I was having to give her water from
a syringe also.
That was the biggest challenge, then
there was her fighting when held and screaming. We got her to sit on our
lap and once in a while fall asleep, but then get up startled and fight to
be put down. She lived in the corner of the kitchen by our dining room
table for 1 week short of three years. She walked counter clock wise
circles at first and then learned to run. At night she traveled the house
up and down the hall and at the end we could hear her grinding her teeth as
she went.
I would take her to the yard morning
and night and it was over a year when she started to trot those circles and
then RUN. She was not dumb, she learned to come in the doggie door. She
learned to stand by the table and look for me to feed her. She learned to
jump in and out of her bed and scratch in her covers and play and I cried
for each small thing she did.
Sweet pea was debarked, had the
scarred feet of a life lived on wire, did not know how to eat or lick
herself or scratch herself. We have to assume that she had been muzzled and
force fed all her young and adult life. I cant imagine her agony for those
years.
Sweet pea went with me to the AMA
Specialty show in 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona and was in the rescue parade. I
was so proud of this girl and her courage. We did have her on xanax
everyday and traveled with rescue remedy.
Every few months or so Sweet pea
would go through periods of what I called running from her demons. Running
none stop for days up and down the hall and round and round the table and
then finally collapse and then we all could rest.
Her final days she had lost all her
weight that she had gained over the years from her non stop running and she
would not stop running and grinding her teeth. So Sweet pea left this world
to finally rest.
The things Sweet Pea gave me.
Kisses a few times, fell asleep on my lap a few times, let me groom her with
patience at times, RAN and smiled out in the yard with joy, looked at me
with love from her bed, looked at me to tell me it was time to eat. I loved
that old scarred girl and carry her in my heart and always will. Hugs, Edie
Well, you got me started. Here is
Sweet Pea playing in her bed with butt up and front down digging. She just
started doing this maybe 6 months before she died. It was so fun to see her
leap in and out of her bed and spin and leap back in and then dig. Hugs, Edie
