My wife and I are senior citizens, always having 2 dogs', is a comfort to us and we always adopt them. My story is about 2 dogs', one of which was put to sleep 10 days ago, which was one of the dogs' that actually saved my life. I was in the hospital 9 days, was given 13 pints of blood as I lost alot of blood (ulcers), and unfortunately my wife was out with a friend. I don't even remember passing out so many times. I don't know if it was my blood, or if dogs' knew I was in trouble, they awoken me, did everything they could, which did wake me up. One dog, 3 years old, still with us, and also mourning her companion, even helped me off the bathroom door. First time ever calling 911, when I finally got to the phone, which wasn't close and why I lost so much blood. The only times I remembered being on the floor, not remembering passing out, were 2 times. I'm sure it was more. Doctors' in the hospital hear alot of these stories, so it didn't surprise them and when they told me if it wasn't for my dogs', I would have died, and when I heard that, it made me cry. I was very scared in the hospital, even the doctors' didn't know the outcome of my situation, but they were able to fix me up without surgery. When, after 9 days, I got home, saw both dogs', wagging tails, whimpering, and I realized then what they did for me, I cried again, even my wife. All I can say is the last time I passed out, Doctors' said I came at the right time, or nick of time, otherwise I would have died peacefully. We've had dogs', adopted always, since 1966. We were extremely lucky to get Little Bear, the one who just was put down, at 14 years old, and was 8 weeks old, and the other dog, Scubs, we really were lucky, she is a Black Lab, her parents won contests on the Animal Channel. People who owned the male and female, had marriage problems, so we certainly were lucky. It reminded me of that saying "things happen for a reason....that when Little Bear lost her companion, she was a mess, so where we adopt, the woman called me right away, said they were champion dogs', and just to pick them, there were 9 pups, and day they got them there were 2 left, so I just picked one. I believe that things happen for a reason, and Little bear not only loved the 8 week black lab, I took photos because I was amazed how Scubs, black lab, was so close, too close really, to Little Bear. This was so hard, I can't tell you. I'm so worried about Scubs, she didn't eat since Little Bear was put down, but I won't go into how so sad, mourning, she was, and my Vet told me what to do. I'm trying to explain, since 1966, until now, I never was rushed to the hospital, I was in very bad shape, and doctors' were very worried about me. 10 days and Scubs still isn't eating. But she's still playing, rolling around with me, wrestling with me, does everything except eating. Oh, when Scubs, first time I passed out, she poked at me, barked very loud in my ear, and she was whimpering, actually like crying. I couldn't believe I couldn't get up, Scubs turned and put her rear end in between my legs, and raised her tail like wanting me to grab her tail. What I did was used my left hand on her back, not hard, and right hand holding door to bathroom door, and I got up, just took a split second and I didn't remember anything, meaning I passed out, but near the bed. (when I felt my body rocking, as I started to get up, both dogs' were trying to get up, both dogs' were whimpering. (pardon me, this is so hard to type.) I don't remember much at all, I did figure out that I should not stand up, because I couldn't breathe or breathed hard and my heart was beating so loud, I could actually hear it. One thing I learned is this is a "wake up call" because in our bedroom we don't have a phone, I don't want to get calls so late, or middle of morning. All this passing out, and help of dogs', started around 1:30 AM, and I finally got to phone, which I didn't know the time, but saw it was getting light outside, so I was in this condition for hours. I'm worried, and my wife too, because Scubs' isn't eating, not drinking. Started walking Scubs, which made her drink, thank God, and now, just now, today, October 24th, got Little Bear's ashes, which brought back alot of what all happened. 911 emergency were great, dogs' were in the bedroom, closed door, did all that while crawling to finally get to the phone. Standking up was bad, I couldn't catch my breath, and one never knows when one will pass out, I did all this crawling, crawling to my reclyner, and emergency trucks got here withing 2 or 3 minutes. We live in Orlando, the emergency trucks/fire trucks locked about 8 blocks away. Needless to say, the paramedics doing their sthing, they were just great, seeing 2 needles going into my arms, I was stsil afraid, nothing really scares me, but this time I was scared, I was so scared I didn't make sense to Paramedics, but I do remember saying like "I don't want to die". "Am I going to die?" Those paramedics, at least here where we live, were so great, I wrote a letter, called them, and praised them. I don't know what else to say other than reason this happened was because I only ate 1 meal a day. Because of the ever so raising of food, etc., it's hard for us, just like most of the Americans, especially people like us, and people on Social Security. I was told I MUST eat 3 times a day. With prices the way they are now for Social security/Medicare, Gas, especially food, 10 days after when I held Little Bear in my arms as Vet injected her, not only I, my wife, cried, but both Vets cried. 14 years is a long time and Little Bear and Scubs ALWAYS made me feel better in my condition, which is why I always adopt dogs, always having dogs' since 1966, as I KNOW that when the dogs' KNOW when I'm in extreme pain, they never leave my side. It seems that the dogs' know I'm in pain alot, and get me up to walk them, and even though I'm hurting so bad, my dogs' come first, not counting my wife of 42 years. Dogs' KNOW I must walk, and when I do, I realize I feel better. God, I'm going to miss my Little Bear so much. Since Little was was put down, I haven't eaten 3 meals a day, I eat between 1, which is seldom, to 2 and 3 meals, and people reading this story WILL know when they go shopping, I don't have to tell you that we're in the position now to either get food, or perscriptions. Thank God our daughters', who live in other States, one daughter came, helped us alot. Told other daughter, in Washington State, not to come and not to feel guilty about not coming. Everyone who treated me in the hospital, after hearing this story, and there's MORE to the story, but not enough space, my nurses, my doctors', etc., all were telling other professionals. So, not only am I so worried about Scubs, which my Vet returned my call and told me what to do, I'm worried about myself, there is ABSOLUTELY no way do I want to go thru this again, it was the most terrible experience in my whole life. And certainly a WAKE UP CALL. I'm rambling now, and I'm sorry for that, and hope you can understand how we feel. God Bless all of you who have the same circumstances. Only DOG owners/lovers truly know about animals. It's so sad that people I know would say things like "it's only a dog, they're not smart". I'm a very easy going guy, never argue, so I never tell anybody the story who DON'T have pets. Thank you all very much for reading my story, and the Best Wishes to all of you.
From Orlando, Florida
Terry
Orlando, Fl.
Comments would be appreciated by the author, Terry