Odie

Odie was one that we couldn’t really “save”, but we did our best. His owner dropped him off at the shelter saying that she didn’t have a fence and he chased cars and anything fast.    He was terribly stressed at the shelter so they transferred him to a smaller shelter who sent him back in a week.   He was adopted but returned in two weeks due to extreme separation anxiety.   Drugs helped him but he was still a frantic mess.

We couldn’t stand the situation and brought him home; the large group of dogs and human companionship much of the time usually took care of separation anxiety. In his case, it wasn’t enough.

He loved the big pasture, loved running after one of the other dogs – loved running, period – and that made him happy.   His anxiety in the car lessened in a few weeks, and we could leave him home with the pack for some time. But his body was giving out; his elbows were hopelessly arthritic and within months his back end and back were sore from trying to carry the weight.   With pain, his anxiety escalated greatly and meds for both stopped being enough to give him a happy life.

It was very hard to say goodbye to such a vibrant personality and “young” (for ODH) dog – but it was time.  Many times we wish that we’d known our ODH dogs earlier in their life, but in this
case that was a very heartfelt wish.    We loved you, Odie.