Ihad to put old Tazz down Sat morn . He had been having seizures since Christmas time . The Vet perscribed Phenobarb to quell the seizures . Aparently this is the fix for all dogs no matter what causes the seizures . He would have the ocasional seizure about 1 a month and after I would n ormaly find a pill he spit up so this would mean he had no protection against the seizures . Friday night he had a seizure and after he calmed down a bit I gave him his pill wich was about an hour early but it did no good he continued having seizures thru the night . I stayed with him till around 4:30 am when I fell asleep . I awoke to find him in a stupper type state being unabel to walk I had to carry him out to the truck to bring him down to the vet . The vet could not bring him back and she said his temp was 110 . They tried several things with IV to no avail . So at that time we decided to put him down. Tazz came to be from my x girlfriend . O ne weekend she had her kids . So we always did something like the movies with me footing the bill and it was getting to expensive taking this tribe to the movies. I decided we would go to the pet show over at the old expo center in Ft. Washington being it was free admitance . Well this was like a horror show of pets it was all adopteition pets that had some kind of troubel or abuse historys the one eyed snake the three leged dog fire burned cats etc you get the picture . Well these kids started signing up for these poor creatures and guess who would have been stuck with them youres truly . I put the kibash on all these adoption ideas and promised them we would go up to Jacks dog farm and if he had any pure Labs I would get them one . Unknown to them Jack never4 has labs at least he didnt when I got my 1st one I repeat what Jack said to me those many years ago ,"I never have labs and no doubt never will ". That being said is why I promised them the pup knowing he would not have any so off to Jacks we went . Well when we arrived Would'nt you know Jack had a bumper crop of Lab pups and they were all expensive so we settled on a choclate pup and the girl friends son named him the tazzmanian devil or tazz for short . This name came about from his pups antics for shreading stuff. I think he destroyed somebodys glove on the way home . He was a good companion to me and old Virgil who was my existing lab . Tazz was a great retreiver and he became quite the acomplished duck dog . He never got to Virgils level as Virg was equely as good as an uplander as well as a superior Duck dog but I put more time in with Virg with live pigeons and ducks . I truly miss old TazZ as I miss all my labs and I hope one day I will reunite with them all in Valhalla . I will always get choked up every time I see the mounted Mallard Tazz retrieved up the river. This duck was winged and made it up river about a 100 yds so I gathered him up and we snuck up along the high bank when we got to the duck I put tazz on him he did an otter slide down the bank raming into a root flipping over it and swiming out to retrieve the duck .He then swam back to the almost verticel bank put it in 4 wheel drive and climbed up the bank to deliver the duck to hand . Another time Tazz was in his Rookie season and I just shot a buffelhead and Old Virgil was along but on the bench cause he was realy retired but did not know it but he would not let you leave the house with a gun without him taking him so he was just along for the ride so to say but probably thinkin who was this young upstart trying to edge him out . Well I waited with tazz out in the shallows waiting for the dead duck to drift past the decoy spread with old Virge going nuts in the boat I put tAZZ ON THE BIRD AND HE RETRIVED IT WITH EASE HIS 1ST RETIEVE AND IT WAS A BLIND ONE I PRAISED HIM AND WE WERE BOTH HAPPY DUCKERS .Eccept Virge he was quite pissed off and was ripping into the 2 happy hunters especialy this young upstart job stealing bastard and he was not shy about letting the world know it . Plainly it sounded l;ike aprison break with Virg barking like a whole pack of blood hounds . This comotion ensued the whole time we were retrieving and when we were returning back to the boat . As we neared the boat Virg subsided and he had a quersome look on his face . Now being the blind was still up I could not seee Viges body but he shore had a vengful look on him . When I got to the Boats stern there was od Virge with leg cocked pissing all over my Binelli no doubt vengful revenge on his part for giving his job away to this young upstart . I STILL USED HIM IN FIELD HUNTS BUT VIRGES OLD AGE WAS GETTING THE BETTER OF HIM HE TOO IS MISSED AND TAZZ fullfilled his dutys threwout his lifetime with lots of retrieves and some hairy hi seas adventures down the shore chasing diver ducks .
Aw geez Steve, I'm sorry to hear that. Our animals become part of our lives and some of our best friends. We came home one time and found our dog stumbling around in the hall closet. Couldn't find it's way out. We figured it had a stroke and went blind. Needless to say we hauled off to the vet clinic and had to put her down. She was a sweetie and for the last few years of her life she was diabetic and we had to give her a needle once a day to control it. And that wasn't cheap either. Another time she blew out her knee chasing a rabbit - gads the cost to repair that was astronomical - but we paid it - cause we loved her. We did draw the line though for some of the rehabilitation that was recommended. The doc suggested we go to West Chester 3 times a week for 3 months where they had a pool where she could swim and exercise the leg/joint with minimal stress on it. Other than the 2 hr round trip commute, and an hour in the pool, the cost was like $50 session - nope couldn't handle that.
Life is good! I started out with nothing and I still have half of it left!
So sorry for you, Birky. I know your grief because I put-down 2 loved pets & was there @ end w/them. I wanted each to see & hear a loved one for the last time when the shot was administered. It was a painful experience. You did the merciful but reluctant duty; she must be glad that you shared your life w/her. She is now in Rainbow Heaven.
Thanks guys you are all right on every acount .I especialy liked the poem by flyfisher I would read it again but Im fearful Id start blubbering tears and make a public nuicince of myself over here at the library . It is a might lonesome around the house without ole tazz . I can not remember ever being dogless since I was a young boy . We always had dogs even way back down the oold neighborhood in Mayfair . My pops would get these muts he would call SPCA specials they were got down at the Erie ave facility . Most were just muts ready to get gassed usualy pups.They all ended up at a farm in jesey were they could run around in the open country . The weird thing is that alot of my buddys from school had all there dogs sent over to jersey and my cosins as well . If you took a sensus there were thousands of dogs being sent to jersey daily . It seems to me Jersey would be the Dog state and not the garden state . Another thing is my Pops could never find that farm whenever we went down the shore or over to lions lake . Well I never could figure it out but I knew something was fishy go figure Hell I was like 12 or 13 before I figured there wernt no santa clause . Any way I will probably get another lab Ill start over with a black one that was my 1st lab ole duke and Ill start the whole thing over from the begining except maybe Ill get a started pup maybe 5 or 6 months old . Anyway thanks alot .
Goodbye to Tazz
Posted - 05/13/2014 : 11:49:36
