We adopted Bernie
when he was one year old from a "backyard breeder" and he was in bad
shape. Terrified of people, especially children, stayed outside in a
wire pen unprotected from the weather. We bought Bernie, took him to the
our Vet, where we discovered he a severe case of mange, which took 3
months to cure. During the first few days we realized Bernie had been
abused. It took Bernie 6 months before he would come inside and eat with
the other dogs. After several years Bernie finally would come to our
commands but always coward down with hind legs down and crawled to us.
Just
when Bernie was having a good time running on 3 open "fenced" acres and
chasing Harley and tearing up toys daily, Bernie goes blind at the age
of 3 years old. At first it was hard but he figured very quickly where
everything was, getting through the dog door and even ran through the
yard, unfortunately not missing every tree in his way. Bernie had such
will to live and was happy with his family. When ever you pet one of
the other dogs, Bernie would run up and push his way in and demand to be
touched and loved. Bernie and Harley did not always get along but
Bernie just wanted to be loved. Bernie is one of the most sweetest dogs
you could ever imagine and trusted us so much. Like when we clipped his
toe nails, he would get so excited just to be touched. Bernie was
nicked name "Weiner Pig" because he would try to eat the other dogs
food. Bernie would eat so fast, sometimes he would choke on his food.
Bernie
contracted "Lymes" disease in July 2010 and was treated for it and the
Vet told us it would be cured. Unfortunately, that wasn't true as we
discovered later on. Even though Bernie was blind, he was fearless which
ended up being his demise. Bernie jumped off the sofa a few days ago,
landed hard and appeared okay. The next morning Bernie was dragging his
rear legs while trying to do his business. Knowing the potential
outcome after cleaning him up, he eat his breakfast as though nothing
was wrong, even though he was panting hard, body quivering and stiff as a
board. I spent some time with him and took his picture just in case
this was the last time and cried.
Bernie responded within hours
of receiving cold laser treatment, pain medicine and steroids. Hopes
were high. Bernie stayed over night since it was now the weekend. Seeing
Bernie the next morning, he was not doing well at all. With his
calcification of vertebrates, herniated disk, his inability to urinate
on his own and his kidney levels spiking in the wrong direction and
testing positive for advance stages of Lymes disease, which is causing
his paralysis, we made that dreaded decision, we could not let him
suffer any longer. I'm choking up just writing his story. We will
have his ashes this week and put them in his own personal keepsake box
with his picture. We have lost one of our family members and will
change us all. We all will miss Bernie and are saddened that we
couldn't do more for him in is short life of 4 1/2 years.
God bless Bernie and he will live forever in our memories.
Love Mike, Kristen, Buster, Oscar, Sadie, Patsy, Harley, Mitzie, Dasie and Junior.
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