Angel came into my life six years ago.
I had been a caregiver to my mother for so many years and with her
passing, I now needed to get back to working on myself. I have a German Shepard X (Jake) who was
going to be home alone so I wanted to find a companion for Jake. I have had Collies before and love the breed;
they are so regal and loving.
It must have been fate because I knew nothing about Okanagan Collie
Rescue but I found the organization online.
I saw Angel and knew my home was going to be her home. I sent in my application and a few days later
I received a call from Leslie (OCR).
Although I was ready to travel to BC, to my surprise Leslie was
fostering Angel in Calgary and she was willing to come to my home with
Angel.
Angel chased Jake around the yard barking at him and I knew she was
going to rule the house. Leslie gave me
the opportunity to foster Angel but after hearing her story, I knew I would
fail as a foster mom. I wanted to keep
her and Angel deserved a furever home.
It was close to a year after Angel came to live with us that she started
taking seizures. After many tests, it
was determined that the cause was electrical.
Angel was put on medication and her seizures were under control.
Angel loved her walks. During the
warm weather, we started walking early morning to enjoy the solitude. Angel must have loved it because she started
waking me up before 4:00 a.m. It was
time to go for our walk! When Jake
walked, he was on a mission; he did not want to stop but Angel--she stopped
everywhere to check out all the smells.
Many times I felt like I was going in two different directions at the
same time.
One day late September, I came home from work to find Angel coming out
of a seizure. About an hour later, she
took a grand mal and fell over. All I
could do was hold her and keep her calm.
It took many hours before Angel seemed to be back to herself. Angel began drooling and this was something
she never did. Angel had always been a
good eater but she started ignoring her food.
I knew something was definitely wrong.
Angel was put on antibiotics and the dosage of her seizure medication
was increased. It seemed like this
happened over a long period of time but it was only a couple of days. She began whimpering during the night when
she thought I was sleeping. Eventually,
it was determined that Angel was suffering from multiple tumors in her
throat. This was the cause of her
drooling; she could not eat, she could not even drink water nor could she get
up without help. After many discussions
with my vet, I decided the kindest thing I could do was to let Angel go.
Cradled in my arms, Angel took her final journey on October 11. Angel is sorely missed but I know she is no longer in pain and enjoying all the
smells at the “bridge”.