the story of Chai...

eulogy

on july 3, 2022, tomorrow, chai would have been 14 years old. we took him to our vet and helped him along on his final journey on may 11, just 2 months short of that 14th birthday. for months he had been having what appeared to be night terrors and they had been getting worse. he spent a lot of time standing and staring. he had periodic episodes of not eating and of remaining in our, his and mine and nellie's and sometimes boo's, bedroom unwilling to come downstairs except for going outside to pee and poop. he didn't always make it outside and was humiliated when he had an accident even tho' I gave him hugs and told him it was all right. at the end of his life despite the horrendous nights he had started eating again, mostly, and was going downstairs more when I went down. he was also going out with his daddy and the others to play.

i would like to think that his last days were fun for him even when he wouldn't take his medications and I constantly worried about the return of his earlier seizures. he seemed content.

 

the Back Story:

I have a friend in the UK who saw Chai's photo on FB in 2014 and emailed me to see if I might be interested. [thank you again Fiona] I was interested so I contacted the rescue that was located in California down the coast from us. I filled out the forms and had a phone interview. the original owner had wanted to put him down because he had a seizure disorder. she was talked out of it and signed him over to rescue. I was told that the seizing occurred at most monthly and the seizures were short and mild.

I spent 20 years working in special ed and I've seen thousands and thousands of seizures so I wasn't too concerned.

 

Rain, our rescue lady, drove him up to us and he settled in with us on sept 14th, 2014. he was a little over 6 years old.

and then the seizures hit. they were not mild and were not infrequent. sometimes I had to tackle him so he wouldn't hurt himself they were so long-lasting and violent. but, working with our wonderful vet we finally found a combination of medications that worked. it took over a year.

 

Chai was an elegant dog, very beautiful, very quiet, and he adapted to life in our chaotic household. he never barked.

he loved his little red ball that the foster lady sent to us.

he loved running in the back field.

he loved taking a walk with his daddy and the others down the driveway to get the newspaper and the mail every day.

he slept with me and mr. jones before mr. jones died in 2017. when jones died he went into a tailspin and wouldn't eat. it took Leon and me almost 2 years to get him eating regularly again. he ended up eating on our bed upstairs and only there with frequent bouts of refusing food and medication, but he had no more seizures. we finally got him to put on some weight. I think he loved mr. jones.

he loved daddy's home-made cookies.

he loved his daddy. and he loved his mommy.

he loved visitors. he was shy but eventually approached them.

he loved getting bits of food at the dinner table when we ate. [actually I think I could have pulled up a chair and had him sit at the table and eat what we were eating. ]

he loved bathing in the sun.

 

what he didn't like:

mama going downstairs.

mama sneezing. or coughing.

the vacuum cleaner, the floor model and the handheld vac.

mama folding clothes [???]

marina, because she bit him in the ear once.

mama listening to music at night, even with the earphones on. [I wonder if he could still hear the music. ]

he preferred that mama do nothing in the evenings except sit next to him in bed. and rub his tummy until he'd had enough.

dog food

 

we were blessed with Chai Chai for almost 8 years. longer than I thought we'd have him.

he graced us with his quiet ways and we loved him dearly.

at the end of his life he got stubborn. I'm so glad he got to be him.

we picked up his ashes in a beautiful wooden box yesterday.

he will join our others.

 

this was hard to write. pardon any typos.

 

pictures below

and please, no icons just words.

 

 

Done