yesterday started out as a perfectly normal day and quickly became a heartbreaking mess. if you’re a fan on our facebook page then you may already know we lost zander. we probably should have realized we were on borrowed time with him since his seizures started, they were so aggressive and we were having a hard time controlling them with phenobarbital, but we remained hopeful. even as i say that i know full well that even if we were clear we were on borrowed time it wouldn’t have made a difference – if there’s one thing living with these dogs has taught me is you can’t prepare for their loss – it doesn’t do any good and i’ve found you potentially lose some joyful time while they’re still here. no matter how old, no matter how sick and no matter how much it’s their time i’m never ready and i never feel anything less than heartbroken and incredibly lonely. so here we are today with broken hearts and reeling minds…we woke up yesterday with a perfectly fine zan (as perfectly fine as he got at this point) and now we are without him.
the story of zander that we had at the time we adopted him was that he had wandered up to a farm and after he had been kicked in the head by a horse (possible start of his brain issues???) and saved the family and their two dogs by chasing off a coyote they decided he was too much and dropped him in a kill shelter. i tell that story because i can guarantee you zander was trying to make friends with a) the horse that kicked him, b) the family, c) the other two dogs and d) the coyote and he probably inadvertently ended up annoying all of them. zander was so ready to be everyone’s best friend but he had a very sticky, clingy way of going about it that didn’t rub everyone the right way. we had 6 years with him and he was nothing short of incredibly loving, incredibly faithful and at times incredibly annoying. we will miss him dearly but i think the thing i will miss the most is his mealtime cheerleading (no one really knew what to do last night at dinner):
zander
sail on zan...we miss you dearly.