Animal Updates
Something is always happening in the lives of Home for Life® residents: achievements, visits from sponsors and supporters, and milestones. This page highlights just a few of the many events that residents experience throughout the year.
August 10, 2008
Memories
Our fourth annual Memorial Garden Event takes place on September 6, 2008. This important event gives our staff a time to remember the many animals that we've lovingly cared for over the years. When an animal dies, it is difficult to stop and grieve because there are so many living animals to attend to. What's more, it is a bittersweet fact that space opens up for new animals at Home for Life® when our older animals pass away.
The Memorial Garden Event is free and open to the public, so that our supporters can also reflect and remember the lives of special animals. Our event this year will feature a blessing of the animals, Alan and Linda Anderson, authors of the ANGEL ANIMALS series of books, classical music, and poetry. The ceremony will be officiated by Herb Sam, Native American Spiritual Advisor for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
Below we profile a few special dogs whose recent passing will give us pause at our Memorial Garden Event this year.
Patches: After a long and valiant fight against osteosarcoma,
Home for Life®'s own miracle dog, Patches, passed away in
late July. His cancer had metastasized to the lungs, which is the typical
course for the type of cancer that Patches had. He had also developed a
cancer of the sweat glands in his neck that impeded his ability to swallow
and eat. The tumor on his neck was removed in June, but within a few weeks
it grew back larger than ever. Patches also developed problems breathing
due to the tumors, and eventually he stopped eating. Patches had had enough
of veterinarians, needles, hospitals and hurting. At his last appointment
with the oncologists, he seemed uncharacteristically frightened and trembled
through the entire appointment. He did not want to be left at the hospital
and wanted to come home. We decided that no more procedures would be pursued.
We are grateful that we were able to spend over a year with Patches at Home
for Life® after his diagnosis. He spent a peaceful summer
lounging on his hammock in the sunshine, and enjoyed running in the wildflowers
nearly to the very end. It was our goal to give him as much quality time
with us as we could.
"Full speed ahead" was Patches' motto, even after he lost his leg.
It is hard to believe we will never see him again, running at top speed in the big field with his roommates, or lounging contentedly on his futon. Patches seemed to be either in perpetual motion or in a deeply relaxed state. He was a dog that marched to the beat of his own drum. I remember seeing him shortly after he arrived at HFL in one of the dog runs, pointing at... what? He gave me a sidelong glance as though he wanted to share his discovery. After looking closely, I realized that he had a monarch butterfly in his sights!
It is impossible to go into Patches' townhouse or walk in the field without feeling his presence still with us. Patches will also be remembered for his extraordinarily gentle personality with people of all ages and with his many dog friends at the sanctuary, especially his roommate Macy, who passed away within days of Patches, also from cancer. It is hard to know what is harder: to lose one of our animals suddenly, as we did with Macy, or to care for them for months knowing that they are terminally ill, as was the case with Patches.
Patches' battle with cancer made him an inspiring participant in our Sit*Stay*Heel program, where he visited young patients at the U of M Hospital's oncology ward.
Macy: Macy came to Home for Life® from a foster-based rescue after being adopted and returned three times. The rescue took Macy in from an animal control facility where she had been surrendered and her newborn puppies euthanized. Without puppies to nurse, Macy developed painful mastitis. Even worse, she developed a deep sense of anxiety from the loss of her homes and then her puppies. Her separation anxiety was so severe that she could not stay alone in any of her adoptive homes.
At Home for Life®, we thought Macy might enjoy participating in our Renaissance Program, but once she had found security at the sanctuary, she trembled with fear anytime she had to leave. So, Macy stayed at HFL.
Although timid in public, at home Macy was one of our "queens," and held court over the five male dogs who shared the large townhouse she occupied. Other dogs recognized Macy's regal bearing and natural dignity and deferred to her.
With her pretty face and loving energetic personality, she was always a staff favorite. She missed our young Collie Robin, one of her roommates, when he passed away unexpectedly this spring. She was also close to Patches, her roommate and companion for many years.
Queen Macy
We are not sure how old Macy and Patches were at the time of their deaths.
They were both rescued dogs and we could not establish their age upon admission.
However, it is estimated that both dogs were about 12–14 years old
when they passed away— good long lives for large breed dogs.
Even though nothing can take away the pain we feel at the loss of beloved
Patches and Macy, two of the first dogs to begin a new life at HFL, we take
comfort in the fact that both dogs were happy and had the best quality of
life right up to their final days, and that wherever they are now, they
are together.
Sherlock: Another sad and irreplaceable loss for HFL this
summer was the death of our beloved Sherlock, a blind Jack Russell Terrier,
who died of liver failure that caused uncontrollable seizures.
Sherlock was one of our first certified therapy dogs, having obtained certification over seven years ago with a near perfect score despite his blindness.
Since the death of his best friend Paulo, a smooth-coated Chihuahua, last year, Sherlock had not been his normal happy self. In retrospect, we realize that his seizures, which had been infrequent and mild, started about the time Paulo passed away. Sherlock's decline may have begun back then, because it seemed that his heart and spirit were somewhere else, though physically he was still with us. He slept frequently and seemed disconnected from his surroundings when awake. This condition was heartbreaking and disconcerting to observe, because Sherlock was always very earnest and engaged in whatever he was doing or with whomever he was meeting.
Our Sherlock, the dog we remember, had a loving smile and enjoyed nothing better riding in the car and attending outreach visits at the various locations that we serve through our Pet Peace CorpsSM program. We want to remember him as he was, illustrated best by the photo below, on a visit to the Tubman Family Alliance of the Twin Cities.
Sherlock spreads the love at a visit to the Tubman Shelter.