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It was his gentle behavior and the fact that he
was an epileptic, (I’m a sucker for sick animals,) that convinced me
to give him a second thought. When Jerry drove back a few days
later to pick him up all he had to do was open the hatch of the Jeep
and Denali hopped in, there was no need to coax him.
Once settled in our big yard, Denali acted like
a yard ornament. He didn’t move, run or play and was completely
submissive to the other dogs. One thing Denali wanted, however, was
to get into the house. He was plastered to the screen door in the
back of the house and every time we opened it he tried to push his
way through. One day I walked towards said screen door and realized
that half of Denali was oozing into the house. He’d managed somehow
to bend the lower part of the door. We decided that it was time to
integrate him with the other pooches and taught him that the dog
houses in front were a better place to hang out.
There were only a few things that upset
Denali. One was the ringing of the telephone, the other fireworks.
Every time the phone rang, he took off like a shot and ran as far
away from the house as he could. I finally disconnected our outside
bell, but it didn’t make much difference, he could still hear it
ringing inside. So I bought a machine that talked instead of rang.
So when the phone rang there was a voice saying “Pardon me, but your
telephone is ringing”…which, after a few weeks, made me run halfway
across the yard.
On New Years Eve Denali ran away. All it took
was one firecracker and he crawled under the fence and disappeared.
It took me the better part of the night and the next day to find him
in a neighbor’s yard playing with a little dog. He thought it was
quite all right to run away and didn’t feel bad at all when he saw
me. I adopted stricter measures and hot-wired all the fences.
Slowly over the next few months Denali started
to change. He ran a little with our other German Shepherd, Max, and
turned some of his fat into muscle. On occasion he would get up and
greet us when we came home. Although he never competed for
affection with the other dogs, he now sat nearby and quietly awaited
his turn.
We soon discovered two interesting facts about
Denali. He loved to play and he never barked. Therefore, we had on
our hands a 114 pound “guard” dog with the mentality of a puppy that
didn’t make any noise. We decided to teach him one by using the
other. We bought him a plastic bone and before we threw it for him
he had to bark. The first few times he just opened and closed his
jaw, but no sound came out. His first bark scared him quite a bit
and he looked at us for support. After his first encounter with a
bark he soon realized that it could be used to initiate playtime,
but that was just about it. Unfortunately Denali’s seizures got
worse over time; he seized every 10 days and the vet increased the
Pheno Barbitol steadily. Pretty soon we ended up with a completely
drugged dog. He wobbled when he walked and kept falling over. Max
and our other two dogs Panda and Jenni regarded his seizures as a
threat and started to attack him. First they just left little bite
marks in his joint areas but the more seizures he had the worse the
wounds got. During one particular attack they tore open his armpit
from side to side. A friend of ours mentioned a drug called
Potassium Bromide which was used in high doses to treat epilepsy in
dogs. We decided to put Denali on it to see if it would cut down
the seizures and consequently the attacks.
He almost immediately stopped seizing but
unfortunately the attacks by Max didn’t. Max had turned into a
predator, whether that was cause by Denali’s seizures or if it was a
character flaw that was reinforced by them we’ll never know…but we
did have to put Max to sleep.
Over the next few weeks Denali blossomed. He
started to chase Jenni, our German Shepherd girl, through the yard.
At first the distance between the two was enormous, but little by
little he caught up with her. His muscles got stronger everyday and
in no time he was the strong healthy dog he was meant to be. His
behavior never changed though. He never barked and still ran away
from the sound of the phone, but we didn’t really care…we just
wanted him to be healthy and happy. Even without being drugged to
the eyeballs he was the most gentle and most loveable dog.
By the time Denali had been with us for a
little over two years he was on Potassium Bromide, 200 mg of Pheno
Barbitol, seizure free and trimmed down to 99 pounds of muscles. He
spent his days chasing his favorite toy, Jenni, through the yard,
waited for us to feed and pet him and whenever he could fit it in…he
napped.
Early in 1998 Denali developed a limp in his
left front leg. After a series of x-rays and a biopsy our vet
determined that he had elbow dysplasia and arthritis in both front
legs. We put him on anti-inflammatory medication but the limp
didn’t go away. After a few weeks he also got very weak in his hind
legs. His right leg would turn in whenever he walked and interfere
with his other leg. Back to the vet we went for another checkup.
Since the x-rays taken previously showed no signs of hip dysplasia
or back problems the vet diagnosed him with German Shepherd
myelopathy, also known degenerative myelopathy. Such a diagnosis is
a certain death sentence. The very next day we took him to another
vet for a second opinion and his diagnosis was the same. The only
hope he could offer, a small one to boot, was acupuncture. Willing
to try anything under the sun we made an appointment. The doctor
sounded very hopeful and stuck poor Denali full of needles. He
looked like a pin cushion but was genuinely bored with the whole
procedure and fell asleep. He never once tried to fight the vet or
the needles.
That night and the next day he was exhausted
and very sore all over. We were told to cook special food for him,
so I bought rice and veggies to mix with gourmet frozen food and
vegetarian dry food. His dish looked better than some I’ve cooked
on occasion. Over the next few weeks and treatments Denali seemed
to improve a bit.
3 years later Denali was off the Pheno Barbitol
altogether. His treatments with the vet, whom we affectionately
call the “Voodoo-Vet”, have been cut back to once every three
months. Meanwhile, he learned to bark at the horses and when he
demanded food. People still were no reason for him to raise his
voice or even wake up for that matter. Jenni was still his favorite
toy and even though she was “all grown up” still loved to be chased
around by him.
8/3/2005
It’s been over 6 years since I wrote the above.
Denali never had another seizure. We took him off his seizures meds
and he was just fine without it. His arthritis was under control and
he lived a happy life. Lately though he’s been getting worse and we
decided that it was time to let him go. We’ve had the pleasure of
his company for 10 beautiful years and we owe it to him to let him
go with dignity. Jerry and I are both a mess, but eventually we will
be able to laugh at Denali’s antics and look back with a smile at
the memories we made.
"Let me go before the cheering stops"
Quote from Million Dollar Baby
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