Goodbye Jaz

My folks are going to put down their dog Jazmine tomorrow. For a medium / large dog, 15 years old is really old. She's really starting to have troubles now. She can't stand for very long and if she falls, she can't get up. My mom thinks that she's having little strokes because some times she really bad, and other times she's better. My mom told me today about their plan, so we went over to my folks place after dinner and took some lamb. No matter how a dog is feeling, they sure perk up when you give them some meat.

She was the smartest dog I've ever had. When I was in elementary and high school, often my mom would walk up the driveway with the dogs to meet me. If they were still at the house or too far down the driveway, I would dash into the long grass (6' or higher) and crouch down to hide. I could fool the other dogs, but Jaz would usually zip up the driveway and then go 90 degrees and a bounding straight towards me, usually knocking me over. I was able to hide from her once but I was in a bit of a gully. She was able to come within a couple of feet, but not find me. I knew she could smell me and knew that I was right about there.

She loved the snow. Didn't matter if it was -35 C, she'd bury her face in it and roll around. She also had a super soft mouth. Because Joe (our older dog at the time) would steal whatever she would be playing with, she'd play with tiny little pebbles. You'd be sitting on the front porch with her and she'd be making a slight scrapping sound. Then she'd spit out this tiny rock - half the size of a grain of rice. If she heard Joe coming, she'd quickly pick up her tiny pebble and run off, because, right then, that was her special toy.

There were some foods that she didn't like. Joe didn't like things like lettuce, but if you would toss it up he'd gulp it down. I don't think that it would even hit his tongue. With her she'd catch it, and only then decide if she wanted to eat it. She might spit it out. If you gave her an old bowl of cereal, she'd eat the whole thing, but if there were raisins in it she would spit them out one by one into the bowl with a little *puh-thua* sound.

In the below picture you can see me playing with Joe and Jaz. Notice how Joe is totally focused on my hand - but Jaz is paying attention to the person. I'll miss her.


Goodbye Jazzy.
June 1995 - October 2010