{"id":22376,"date":"2010-11-21T10:34:32","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T18:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=22376"},"modified":"2010-11-22T10:34:41","modified_gmt":"2010-11-22T18:34:41","slug":"the-loss-of-my-longtime-companion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2010\/the-loss-of-my-longtime-companion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Loss Of My Longtime Companion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Buddy in one of his bandannas that he loved. The Davy Crockett hat... Not so much. Spring 2005<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesterday I lost my Buddy. Buddy had been with me\u00a0almost 13 years. I got him in December 1997.<\/p>\n

Buddy was a rescue dog who I took in from the Fredericton SPCA, when he was found running loose in downtown Fredericton in the middle of the coldest December in years. At the time the staff believed him to be a whippet, which is why I was called. I was known to be a sight hound person\u2014borzoi specifically\u2014and so they thought I might want to adopt him.<\/p>\n

When I\u00a0got down to the shelter it was quite obvious that this little guy wasn’t a whippet\u2014he was way too big for that. Buddy was a mixed breed dog, but one who definitely had a lot of whippet or greyhound in him. He definitely needed a special home, not only because of his sight hound blood, but because of what had happened to him.<\/p>\n

Buddy had been neglected, and most likely abused prior to running loose. He was emaciated; had frost bite on the tips of his ears; and was wearing a spiked leather collar.<\/p>\n

Once he was released into my care, it became obvious how emotionally damaged this little guy was as well. He had\u00a0clearly witnessed domestic violence. He had real issues with people standing with their arms crossed\u2014especially in the kitchen. A play fight with someone in the kitchen resulted in Buddy panicking, and jumping up and down between us and barking, in an effort to stop the fight. <\/em><\/p>\n

Buddy also had real anxiety over food. He seemed to always think he would never be fed, despite never having missed a meal since living with me. This food anxiety was never something he was able to overcome.<\/p>\n

When I moved from Fredericton, NB back to the West Coast, I wasn’t sure how he would endure the move. His anxiety disorder was so bad that he was one of those dogs who rarely left the house. He wanted to go with me, but when he was out, all he wanted to do was go home.<\/p>\n

Because\u00a0we had to live in a hotel for a month in Fredericton before flying out to Vancouver, I consulted with all kinds of experts, and\u00a0implemented their advice. It worked. Through medication, and Buddy’s and my bond, he was able to endure the craziness of the month of hotel living, and a flight to British Columbia that involved a change of planes.<\/p>\n

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In our apartment at the Lord Beaverbrook apartment complex in Fredericton, NB August 2004<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once he got to our new house, he found all his furniture, because the movers had already delivered the house full of stuff 3 weeks earlier. He knew this was his new home. I made a promise to him then, that he would never have to move again. I lived up to that promise.<\/p>\n

This past May, Buddy’s vet\u2014who I’ve known for 18 years now\u2014diagnosed him with renal failure. Unfortunately dogs don’t do as well as cats do with the disease. Despite the special diet we had him on, Buddy was losing weight. Sight hounds don’t have much to lose to begin with, so every pound makes those ribs and hip bones very obvious.<\/p>\n

Buddy had been showing other signs of aging as well. He had lost much of his peripheral vision, and also a great deal of his hearing. His back end was also starting to go.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday I made the tough decision. Because Buddy had always been a very proud and dignified dog, I believed he needed to go out that way. The situation should be controlled, and not emergent because he fell down the stairs and broke a leg, or something equally traumatic.<\/p>\n

So yesterday, at 10:25AM, my longtime companion Buddy, who had done\u00a0a remarkable job at overcoming so many of the\u00a0challenges he was handed, passed away with dignity, and\u00a0with his loved ones, and his compassionate and caring doctor by his side. We should all be so fortunate.<\/p>\n

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…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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Yesterday I lost my Buddy. Buddy had been with me\u00a0almost 13 years. I got him in December 1997. Buddy was a rescue dog who I …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[114],"class_list":["post-22376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-in-memoriam"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t