It is with a heavy heart, and many tears, that today, we say goodbye to my beautiful Sabre.
My family and I travelled over 4 hours by train, bus and taxi in England to go see him as a puppy. He was 8 weeks old, and when we looked at his Kennel Club paperwork, realised he was born on April 30th, my birthday! We couldn't resist, and took him as soon as we could.
He was the most perfect puppy you could imagine. He never once needed to be housetrained, even on his first night at home he whined until we let him onto his paper to use the restroom. I put the lead on him for the first time, and he walked like an angel, never pulling, or misbehaving.
Fast forward 6 years or so, and I moved from England to the USA and had to unfortunately leave him at my parental home where I lived for a while. As soon as finances allowed, my wife and I paid for him to fly over here, and we were reunited again!
Unfortunately, this also coincided with a difficult time for him. We realised he had an auto-immune disease, which caused a very serious skin problem (lupus) but after a series of vets and many thousands of dollars, we finally found a great vet. They diagnosed the skin problem, put him on Prednisone, and he was happy again. Before prednisone, this beautiful long haired shepherd had bitten himself completely bald and raw on his back and hips. The prednisone was a dream, he went from 67lbs (while he was itchy and unhappy he would not eat) back up to 93lbs as of Thursday.
Thursday evening, I got home from work, and saw Sabre. He was not himself. His ears were kind of flopped over to the side, he seemed a little weak, and just wasn't happy. A couple of hours passed while i monitored him, and he seemed to be getting more and more sick, so we took him to the emergency vet. They weren't completely sure what was wrong, and considered some kind of poisoning. After a night of treatment, with him not feeling any better, we were able to pick him up first thing in the morning and take him to our regular vet.
It was Aspiratory Pneumonia, and he was getting sicker. They took care of him all day, kept him on an IV drip with antibiotics but it didn't seem to be helping. We got back to the vets about 4pm, and were allowed to get him out of the cage in the vets working room, and sit with him, to keep him company until 6pm came around and we were to take him back to the Emergency Vets for overnight treatment.
We tried to walk him out to our vehicle, but he was not strong enough, so we took him by stretcher into the car. When we arrived, the last I saw of him was them wheeling him past on a stretcher into the back room. He cocked his head to the side and looked at me, as if to say "Well... this is different! I'm travelling in style!".
The dreaded call came at 7am this morning. His strength gave out, and he sadly passed away.
Thank you to you all for the advice you've given us in the past regarding his issues, they have truly been a help. I am also thankful that our vets allowed us to spend some time with him, while they had to try and work around us, so we could keep him company. They are very special, and did all they could.
I'll miss him with all my heart. Here is Sabre, April 30th 1998 - March 1st - 2008. May he RIP
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My family and I travelled over 4 hours by train, bus and taxi in England to go see him as a puppy. He was 8 weeks old, and when we looked at his Kennel Club paperwork, realised he was born on April 30th, my birthday! We couldn't resist, and took him as soon as we could.
He was the most perfect puppy you could imagine. He never once needed to be housetrained, even on his first night at home he whined until we let him onto his paper to use the restroom. I put the lead on him for the first time, and he walked like an angel, never pulling, or misbehaving.
Fast forward 6 years or so, and I moved from England to the USA and had to unfortunately leave him at my parental home where I lived for a while. As soon as finances allowed, my wife and I paid for him to fly over here, and we were reunited again!
Unfortunately, this also coincided with a difficult time for him. We realised he had an auto-immune disease, which caused a very serious skin problem (lupus) but after a series of vets and many thousands of dollars, we finally found a great vet. They diagnosed the skin problem, put him on Prednisone, and he was happy again. Before prednisone, this beautiful long haired shepherd had bitten himself completely bald and raw on his back and hips. The prednisone was a dream, he went from 67lbs (while he was itchy and unhappy he would not eat) back up to 93lbs as of Thursday.
Thursday evening, I got home from work, and saw Sabre. He was not himself. His ears were kind of flopped over to the side, he seemed a little weak, and just wasn't happy. A couple of hours passed while i monitored him, and he seemed to be getting more and more sick, so we took him to the emergency vet. They weren't completely sure what was wrong, and considered some kind of poisoning. After a night of treatment, with him not feeling any better, we were able to pick him up first thing in the morning and take him to our regular vet.
It was Aspiratory Pneumonia, and he was getting sicker. They took care of him all day, kept him on an IV drip with antibiotics but it didn't seem to be helping. We got back to the vets about 4pm, and were allowed to get him out of the cage in the vets working room, and sit with him, to keep him company until 6pm came around and we were to take him back to the Emergency Vets for overnight treatment.
We tried to walk him out to our vehicle, but he was not strong enough, so we took him by stretcher into the car. When we arrived, the last I saw of him was them wheeling him past on a stretcher into the back room. He cocked his head to the side and looked at me, as if to say "Well... this is different! I'm travelling in style!".
The dreaded call came at 7am this morning. His strength gave out, and he sadly passed away.
Thank you to you all for the advice you've given us in the past regarding his issues, they have truly been a help. I am also thankful that our vets allowed us to spend some time with him, while they had to try and work around us, so we could keep him company. They are very special, and did all they could.
I'll miss him with all my heart. Here is Sabre, April 30th 1998 - March 1st - 2008. May he RIP
. He'll always be watching over you til you all meet again, and he'll have wonderful company til that day comes. May peace be with you and God speed sabre, you are a much loved family member.
