[PyrNet-L] In Memory of Melissa

[Stephanie W <srwhitney@earthlink.net>]

We adopted Melissa about ten years ago from a rescue organization.  She
was said to be a
one year old Australian Shepherd.  Since that was one of the breeds I
had always admired, I
couldn’t resist.  When we saw her, she was hardly what I expected,
skinny and shabby
looking, not the dog of my dreams.  But, somehow, hearing that she had
been abandoned,
left to starve in an empty house with a litter of puppies when her
family moved out, I
couldn’t turn away and leave her there, so she came home with us.

She growled at me once in the first day or two.  I had come near her
when she had a rawhide
bone I had given her.  Terrified, I took the rawhide away from her, gave
her a lecture about
how everything she had came from me, and gave it back to her.  She
looked at me so
seriously, as if she understood what I was telling her, and she never
growled at me again.

For the longest time, she crouched and peed if we raised a hand or even
raised our voiced.
Who knows what she had suffered before she was abandoned.  We found out
many years
later from an x-ray that she had had a broken bone in that first year
that had never been set
and never quite meshed.  She also had a very strange, muffled bark.  I
asked the vet if she
had been debarked.  She said no.  Her bark eventually became strong and
normal, so
something had been done to make her unable to bark nornally for at least
a year.

She must have known kindness, too, though.  She loved to be combed, even
if mats caused
pulling.  She never complained.  She also loved to lay with her head on
your shoulder.

Through the years that we had her, she was the most obedient dog I’ve
ever known.  She
seemed to try to figure out what you were going to want her to do next
and do it before you
could say it.  She would always run up to bed a minute before I went up,
regardless of the
time.  I finally figured out that she had figured out that we went to
bed after I turned off the
computer, so she ran to the bed when she heard the off button click.  I
discovered this when I
turned off the computer in the afternoon one day and found her in bed
when I went looking
for her.

I regret not being aware of obedience competition while she was well.  I
know that she
would have loved it, because she always seemed to long to have something
to do for me.

As she got her health back after being starved almost to death, she
developed a beautiful coat
which was quite easy to groom and she had the most beautiful face I’ve
ever seen.

She didn’t like other dogs, and she was harsh with Ciaran (IW) as a
puppy, requiring one
trip to the vet’s, but when he reached adulthood, she changed her mind,
and would sit and
gaze at him with admiration.  Although she was so sick, she was much
more patient with
Anais (Pyr puppy) in the last few weeks.

Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with kidney failure almost a year ago
and began the long,
slow deterioration with some ups and downs, and lots of support from
special diets and
subcutaneous fluids once or twice a day to flush the toxins from her
body.  She never
complained, and at her sickest would try to position herself between me
and whatever she
perceived as a danger.

Over the last few days, she refused to eat and began throwing up quite
often.  It was getting
harder for her to walk and her breathing sounded laboured.  She still
met me with a wagging
tail when I came home.  We realized that we had to make the decision we
had hoped not to
have to make.  We had to let her go.

I know that tonight I will miss having her curled up at my feet.

Melissa was a wonderful, loyal, faithful dog and I do miss her already.

Stephanie, Anais (Pyr puppy), Ciaran (IW), Midnight & Smedley