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A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he
loves himself.
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Every once in a while a dog enters your life and changes
everything.
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Whoever said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, never
owned a dog.
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Nobody can fully understand love, unless they are owned by a
dog.
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Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and
trust. They serve us in return for
scraps. It is without a doubt the best
deal man has ever made.
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Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them. And filling an emptiness we didn’t even know
we had.
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God saw she was getting tired, and a cure was not to be. So He put his arms around her and whispered
Come with Me. With tearful eyes we
watched her, suffer and slowly fade away.
Although we loved her dearly, we could not make her stay. A golden heart stopped beating, playful paws
were put to rest. God broke our hearts
to prove to us He only takes the best.
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November 2014
Sterling was born on Oct 27, 2002. We brought her home when she was just 6 weeks
old. I’ll never forget it. Feels like it was yesterday. She was the runt of the litter. She was so tiny and
timid and terrified of everything. Tom
picked her up and held her close, and said “This is the one”. I don’t usually like to admit when he’s
right, but boy, was he right J She was the one. We named her Sterling. A stunning name for a stunning girl. And with that, we had our 1st
baby! But before we took her home, we
took her over to meet Jerry. He couldn’t believe how adorable she was and
fell head over heels with her too.
Everyone did. Even the most
insistent, self proclaimed “dog hater” ended up loving sweet Sterling. And they weren’t ashamed to admit it! The first time we tried leaving her home
when we went to work, she made it clear that she wouldn’t be left behind. It was a disaster and she almost strangled herself
to death. I ended up taking her to work
for the first 6 months and everyone in the entire building would come
downstairs to our office to get their “Sterling fix”. When she got to be too big, Tom went to work
with Jerry and he decided he could use an “office dog”. And so
it began. She went to work everyday with
Tom and Jer for the next 12 years. We
used to crack up, because Jerry, in his crisp, white work shirt, would take her
out to go potty and then scoop her up, muddy paws and all, fling her over his
shoulder like a baby and carry her back inside!
It was quite a sight, but he didn’t care. He absolutely adored her and any messes she made never
phased him! The clients loved her
too. They would come through the door
and first thing they did was visit with Sterling.
My parents loved Sterling so much too. She was their first “grandpuppy” and they
would take her to their house for sleepovers.
We never had dogs growing up so you can imagine my surprise when they
would call and ask for her to come over and then they’d have her stay the
night. To top it off, they’d have her
sleep in bed with them!!! My
parents! A dog in their bed!!! I never thought I’d see the day. She just always somehow managed to wiggle her way into everyone’s
heart. She had that way about her. It was hard on them to lose her too. They cried remembering all the happy memories
they had of taking that rambunctious little girl to the park 5 or 6 times in
one day to try & run off all that puppy energy!
It never worked! She never ran
out of energy. She was always ready for
more.
Sterling’s 1st best friend was her cousin, Payton. They had such fun together even though
Sterling was “the annoying, younger cousin.”
Payton was a good sport and always let Sterling nibble on her and jump
on her. The 2 of them got into some mischief one year when they pulled an entire
roast off the counter at a family gathering and very quickly & quietly gobbled it up. They were the best of friends until Payton
was taken too soon by a reckless driver who never even bothered to stop. Sterling was pretty sad and lost without her
side kick.
We had an opportunity to
bring a 6 yr old weim home who needed a home and when we tested the 2 of them
out, we thought he would be a good fit for our family and a good friend for
Sterling. It turned out to be a great
decision. Jake fit in perfectly and
became Sterling’s new best buddy. They went everywhere together. Including the office. They spent the next 6 yrs greeting clients,
sleeping on the couch together, going to the park, eating leftover steak
dinners and laying in the sun at the lake.
And then, arthritis got Jake and 3 weeks after his 12th
birthday we had to say goodbye to him.
Sterling was devastated. She had lost
2 of her best friends and she lost a bit of her spunk. She still wagged her “happy meter” and
pranced around, but it just wasn’t the same without Jake. She was a little lost. I think we all were.
When Sterling was about 9-1/2 she started having health
problems. We weren’t really sure what
was going on, but on the 4th of July she was running into walls and
falling down the stairs. I just assumed
maybe she was so terrified of the fireworks and the medication we gave her to
take the edge off , was making her act like that. But the next couple of days proved
otherwise. She was completely blind. We took her to a specialist and discovered she
was severely diabetic and had developed cataracts due to the disease. The next few months were a whirlwind of
appointments and emotions as we tried to figure out what to do. They put her on insulin and she got shots
twice a day and had special dog food to try to get the diabetes under control. They did tons of testing to see if she was
eligible for a special surgery to fix her eyes.
She had to go through so much. It
was heart wrenching to put her through it, but none of us was ready to lose her. I remember one day she was in the back of
Jerry’s car and she was an absolute skeleton and just kind of lifeless. She didn’t wag her stub anymore, didn’t perk
up her ears, there was no expression on her face. The Sterling we knew and loved was gone. Tom and I were talking to her, trying to get
a reaction out of her with no results.
Tom asked, “Do you think she’s still in there somewhere?” It didn't seem like it. After a few more months of appointments with
eye specialists they were hopeful the surgery would be successful, so we made
the very difficult decision to go for it.
It was horrendous for Sterling.
They stuck needles in her eyes, made incisions in them and vacuumed out
the cataracts. The hardest part was
having her come home in a fetal position with those eyes shut tight, a cone
around her neck, in such pain, and not knowing for a few days if she would even be
able to see or not. When she finally did
open those eyes and wagged that stub and
pranced around with those long legs we all breathed a huge sigh of relief and
wiped away very happy tears. Every lost
appetite and sleepless night over worry for her was worth it. We had our girl back and we’d have her for
another couple of years.
We used to joke that it “takes a village to raise a weimaraner”, but she eventually went to live with Jerry full time after we had our 3rd baby in the midst of moving and building a new home. With 2 insulin shots each day, eye drops every 2 hours, and a special diet, nobody could have taken better care of her. Jerry loved her too.
She continued to surprise us over the next couple of
years. For being so thin and frail from
the diabetes, she always surprised me with the strength of her spirit. She always “loved to arrive and loved to leave”
and even as the years and diabetes took a toll on her, that was never more
true. Sterling was never one to be left
behind and she was still game for hopping in the car and going with us wherever
we all went.
She started acting lethargic one weekend and wasn’t eating
or drinking which wreaks havoc on her diabetes.
We figured it was another bladder infection. She has had quite a few of those and thought
she was probably just getting another one.
Then, we noticed she was breathing weird and thought she was coming down
with a cold so we took her to the vet.
They weren’t sure, but thought she had an infection in her spleen. That night Jerry took her home and the next
morning woke up at 5:30am and couldn’t find her.
She had gone outside to go potty and had collapsed in the grass out in
the freezing cold. He brought her inside
and she started having seizures. Jer and
Tom rushed her to the emergency vet where they kept her overnight trying to
figure out exactly what was going on. It
was tough with her diabetes…as soon as they would get her stabilized, something
else would act up and she’d have another seizure. They eventually came to the conclusion that
she had pneumonia. We all went to see
her the next morning not really knowing what to expect. She hadn’t been eating/drinking for 4 days, had
had many seizures and hadn’t walked. She
was hooked up to oxygen and had 2 or 3 other tubes going into her. We went down to the vet with the initial
thought that we would take her home and put her by the fire and let her go in
peace surrounded by everyone she loved and who loved her. I
wanted the kids to be able to see her one last time and say goodbye, but as
soon as we walked in the door it was clear how much she was struggling and we
didn’t want to put her through another minute of it unnecessarily. She had already been through so much and it
didn’t seem fair to ask any more of her.
We weren’t sure if she would even be alert or coherent enough to know we
were there, but the minute we walked through the door and she heard our voices,
she lifted her head and wagged that little “happy meter” of hers. She knew we were there and for that we were
grateful. We spent the next hour or so
petting her, kissing her and talking to her.
It was excruciating seeing her like that and even more so knowing that
those were our final moments with our precious puppy. And so, as we all held her and let her go we
thanked her for being such a good girl and told her once more how much we loved
her.
It was so unbearably sad driving home with her in a box in
the back of the car. All I kept thinking
was how wonderful the last 12 years with Sterling were and how thankful I was to
have had her. I was also so glad she was
no longer in pain and kept thinking that she was finally free from all the
insulin shots and eye drops. I kept
imaginging the joyful reunion she must have been having with Jake and
Payton. Wish I could have witnessed that
one.
Sterling, you were amazing. You will never be replaced and we will keep
you in our hearts forever. I don’t know
how we will go without seeing your happy smile and hearing those nails click as you prance around
the hallways. We will miss our little
love girl terribly. This village will
never be the same.
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