Abby had 3 1/2 really good years with us. We adopted her through MHWR when she was about 5 years old and she had had a tough life up till then. Her owner was arrested and sent to prison (I don't know what for) and his wife didn't know what to do with the dogs so she tied them up in the basement and left them with no food & water. Her father-in-law came to the house and saw what was going on and took Abby and the other dog to a shelter. The other dog was adopted right away but Abby was scared and probably aggressive in the kennel. The shelter called weim rescue and said she was non-adoptable and was to be put down in two days if we didn't come get her. I had just found the weim rescue site that week and filled out an application to be a volunteer. I heard back from Darci on Wed. about 3 dogs in shelters in the Denver area. She told me about Abby and I said I would go and get her immediately. I brought her home and she was the sweetest thing . . . she walked into the house and stole our hearts. Sterling loved her and was happy to have her there. By the end of the week we went to Weim Fest and when Michelle asked for the foster dogs to come up so that people interested could meet them, Joe turned to me and said "she doesn't need to go"! We had failed "fostering 101"!!!! We were not about to give her up!

About one year after we adopted her she had a stroke and we thought we would lose her. You may see her episode on Animal Planet Emergency Vets, the Interns from time to time. I think it was on just a month ago. She came out of the stroke pretty well and we were told that she could possibly gain full mobility within a few months. We worked with her and were pleased that in a short amount of time she was able to walk again on her own with just a few problems in her back legs!

Since that time she has had a few mini-seizures or strokes and has had a few setbacks but she has always been a trooper. Each & every day . . . twice a day she would do her "food dance" when we fed her. She was SO excited that she got to eat AGAIN that she would bark & twirl and sometimes nip at our backsides if we weren't fast enough. We would laugh every time, she was so cute! After the stroke she still did her dance but a lot of times as she propelled herself in a circle she would end up falling because of the back legs but it didn't stop her enthusiasm!
On Tuesday, Feb 24th, we thought she had another stroke. I took her to the vet and he did a blood panel on her & found her to be anemic but other than that couldn't come up with any reason for the stroke. She couldn't walk & wouldn't eat. We carried her outside and helped hold her so she could go to the bathroom. It took her 2 days to come out of this but by Thursday evening she was back to normal . . . for her! I now realize that is was not a stroke after all.

She had another episode on Thursday last week at dinner time. She was lethargic and didn't want to eat . . . definitely not normal for Abby. She couldn't (or wouldn't) walk and we again carried her outside to urinate. Friday morning I called the vet as soon as they were open and was sent to an Internal Medicine specialist for an ultra sound. She was in shock by this point and they found that she was bleeding internal (accounts for the anemia). She had a lot of nodules on her liver and her spleen. They could not in good conscious recommend surgery as they believed that there were just too many tumors and that this was cancer that had spread to her other organs! The kindest thing was to let her go! Which is what we decided to do.

We will miss our girl SO much but she had Sterling waiting for her. Now she can run and play without those darn legs giving out on her and without the pain from bilateral hip dysplasia!

Here are a couple of pictures of Abby. One is with Sterling the day I adopted her- Abby is the one looking over her shoulder.

~Joe and Carolyn Beavers~