Red

March 8, 2008 – March 28, 2008




Red was a beautiful, or I should say handsome, young fellow. He touched my heart and left a lasting mark on my life. Red was owner surrendered, of sorts; his owner was an older gentleman who passed away. Red was surrendered by the gentleman’s family who had tried several times on their own to place Red in a new home. Their attempts failed. Red then came to me. He had some fright issues, he was afraid to ride in a car, afraid of strange people, and some strange dogs.

The day the family brought Red to me, they handed me his paperwork and asked me if I knew his breeder. I answered yes, but what I knew I kept to myself. You see there are many forms of animal abuse, the worse in my opinion is poor breeding. If you breed with little or no knowledge of the breed you can cause a lot of harm, and cause a rescuer heart ache. Red was a victim of such a breeder, epilepsy and hip dysplasia are known to be in the lines of this breeder. I had hoped that since Red was 4 years old these awful conditions had some how skipped Red. I tried to turn a blind eye to him lying stiff legged and shivering on my lap. I tried to come up with excuses for why he would sometimes wet on himself. He had come so far, he had learned to play with other dogs, to hang his head out of a car window so his ears would blow in the wind. He had learned that riding in a car was fun! He was learning to live with a new master, he had an adoption pending. But I had to face the facts when I took him to the vet and Red went into a petite mal seizure, which was followed by a grand mal seizure. My vet was very kind and told me that Red had been having unnoticed petite mal seizures for sometime. The medications that control the seizures cause sleepiness. I have seen dogs suffer with grand mal seizures and that was no life for Red, so I cried as my vet helped Red cross over the Rainbow Bridge. I held his head and told him what a good boy he was and how proud I was of him. He was a brave and courageous dog and I am thankful to have met him, and glad that he is now with his beloved master at the rainbow bridge.

Run free sweet Red, I’ll see you again some day. - Polly