Many of you have come to know our dog Jake these past months. Jake was a mastiff/shepherd mix. A big lug of a dog. At his best he weighed about 120 lbs. He was with us for 10 years and we lost him Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008. Our hearts are broken, but we had an extra year with him that no one expected.
This is probably the picture that most of you are familiar with. What a gorgeous dog! Let me take a bit of your time to introduce to you to the dog that stole our hearts and the reason our hearts are broken now.
When grzlydaughter was two we had 5 cats. We were on track to becoming the crazy cat family down the street! Both RR and I had grown up having dogs so having 5 cats was a bit off the track for us.
One afternoon we took the kids to see Toy Story. It was grzlydaughter's first theater movie. We ate dinner at a restaurant next to a Petsmart and noticed they were having dog adoption day. RR announced, out of nowhere, that we should go in Petsmart and look at the dogs. I was taken off guard but am never one to turn down getting a new pet.
Anyone who's been in Petsmart during dog adoption day knows what a chaotic scene it is. Dogs everywhere! The noise is deafening! We walk into this scene, with two toddlers in tow, and are immediately drawn to this HUGE dog sitting quietly in his crate. He didn't seem at all impressed by the craziness around him. We asked to see him and he came over and buried his head against our legs. We were smitten with this huge dog named Jake.
RR really doesn't like to make decisions without thinking about them, so he suggested we go on the movie and come back when it was over. When we returned to Petsmart, Jake was no longer in his crate. We stood there crestfallen. (and I was a bit irritated with RR's need to "think" - we'd "lost" out on Xmas toys this way :-). So, we started wandering around those dogs who remained, but our heart was with Jake. And suddenly we spy him, walking with another adopting parent. The guy looked like he'd make a good Jake dad so while we were sad, we "approved".
Not two minutes later, Jake and his apparent new dad walked up to us and said "You guys seem to really want Jake. We were just looking for a buddy for our Great Dane, so if you really want him, please take him". We were stunned at this man's generosity. We filled out all the paperwork, paid our fee and were a bit disappointed to discover that Jake's foster mom had to pay a visit to our house to check us out.
Long story short, Jake came to live with us about 2 weeks later. We were amazed that he remained such a quiet dog. That is until one day when I was kneeling next to him at the back door and suddenly he damn near broke my ear drum with a giant WOOF. He had one hell of a bark!
Our favorite Jake story involved grzlydaughter. As I mentioned, both kids were toddlers. Because we didn't know Jake or his history (he'd been dumped in the country north of Tulsa) I spent the first few months watching him like a hawk when he was with the kids. We had started to relax and allow them all out in the backyard together, alone. Being a mom though, I had to stand at the back door and watch. One morning, grzlydaughter is attempting to push her brother on the swingset. If you've ever watched little kids attempt this, you'll know exactly what I mean when I say they can't do it. Grzlydaughter was pushing her brother's swing, but instead of standing in one place she'd march forward with the swing. This is a sure-fire way for a kid to get knocked down. I'm just getting ready to head out when grzlydaughter yells. Jake has her coat in his mouth and she's scared! I'm beginning to panic and start to run but before I can reach them, Jake has pulled grzlydaughter backwards, out of the way of the swing, and dropped her coat from his mouth.
That beautiful sweet huge dog had just pulled grzlydaughter from harm's way. From that point on we knew we were safe.
Jake was the most gentle dog we've ever owned. But he looked a bit intimidating. We've seen pizza delivery guys, meter readers, anyone who came to the door, back up clear off the porch just at the sight of Jake. Of course, we never told them that he probably just wanted to be hugged :-).
Jake was great with all of our cats too. Not once did he chase them or attempt to hurt them. That is is until Sammy the lab mix came to live with us. She and Jake instantly bonded, and Jake kind of helplessly followed her lead. She was definitely the alpha dog. Strange though it may sound, and as big as he was, Jake was never really the alpha dog in our house. He always acquiesced to us, to the other animals. He wasn't a wimp at all, he just seemed to think that asserting his dominance was a big waste of his time.
So the years went by and Jake saw many other animals come and go in our house. Several of the cats died, we got another dog, Max the neurotic Border Collie sidekick™, and Sammy died. We moved several times and he always adjusted.
One little quirk that we loved about Jake, but was in truth a bit scary and a bit of a pain, was that IF he got out of the backyard, he run like hell! You could chase him, call him, get close enough to reach out and grab him, and off he'd go. He seemed to enjoy it as if it were a game. We finally discovered accidentally after chasing him down with the car that once you caught up with him, he jump right in! Woo Hoo! A car ride!
Jake believed in his heart that he was a lap dog. He loved to bury his head under your arm, in your lap, between your legs. He slept on every piece of furniture we owned. He shed like crazy and I'm sure we'll be finding Jake hair for years to come. God we miss him.
Last fall, Jake wasn't his usual self and we'd been taking him to the vet for tests. She suspected Cushing's Disease. An ultrasound was scheduled to look for tumors on his adrenal glands. But what we found was horrific. Jake had a huge mass on his spleen. Surgery was immediately scheduled and and the vet let us know that there was a 50/50 chance that the tumor was cancerous. I sat in the vet's office during the surgery, knitting and crying and hoping like hell that we'd get lucky. And to be frank, if he had tumors throughout his body I was there to make the decision about whether to even wake him up from the surgery or let him go.
The vet informed me that the tumor had ruptured but he survived the surgery and recovered well. About 5 days later they called and told us the bad news. The tumor was a particularly aggressive form of cancer called hemangiosarcoma. They gave him 19-60 days to live. We opted out of chemo or any treatment and decided just to love him fiercely in the time we had left.
I loved him so fiercely that I made him sick by feeding him cat food. Lesson learned and he recovered.
Up until Saturday morning, Jake had been in fairly good health. The past week we'd been worried and he'd been to the vet a few times but it turned out to be a bladder infection. But Saturday morning I woke up to Max barking, what sounded like a dog fight and Jake howling. I came out into the hall to discover that he was having seizures and more than likely an internal bleed. RR had just left to go out of town so I had to get the neighbors to help him slide a blanket under him and carry him in a blanket sling to the car.
The vet met us at her clinic and we did what we had to do. I've never been brave enough to stay with any of my animals when it's time. But I couldn't leave my big ole Jake. He was calm and it was a very peaceful death. We cried, all of us including the vet. I'm still crying occasionally. The house seems SO quiet and empty. Max is sad and not acting like himself. We're all missing our gentle giant.
Many of you have sent emails and left comments that you, too, loved Jake. My favorite comment said Jake was the unofficial woozle mascot of dKos and C&J. Thanks to all you. One of the reasons I can get so angry with pundits who make fun of the blogosphere is that they have no clue about the love and comfort and caring that happens here.
We miss him, we loved him, he had a great life.
Rest in Peace our beloved Jake.