Goodbye Sweet Sazi

Sazi has gone to doggy heaven where she no longer has to worry about her seizures. She can run free chasing bunnies and herding sheep with the full use of her legs again. I hope she is watching us from above and waiting for us to join her. She was a great dog and had more love in her than any dog I have ever seen. She loved to lay on the floor with us and snuggle, making soft sounds as if trying to tell you how happy she was.

We will miss her tremendously. That was the hardest decision I have ever met and up until the final moments I tried to talk myself out of it. But the agony she went through every couple of weeks was too much. I still don't know if I did it for her or for us. I tell myself that it's for the best but I still feel like there was something more I could have done for her.

We got Sazi when she was 9 months old. The original owner bought her and a sibling but decided he couldn't deal with 2 border collies (it's not easy and I don't blame him). A co-worker of his took her in but she already had another dog and was single. We saw an ad in the paper for her and went to look at her. We were looking for a companion to Delaney who is full of energy and we thought a 2nd dog would keep her more occupied. Turns out that she had already gone to live with a college student. I knew that wouldn't work so I told the previous owner to call me if it didn't work. A short time later we got the call. We fell in love with Sazi immediately.

Not long after we were startled awake by a violent shaking next to the bed. Our new baby was having seizures. We were freaked out as you can imagine. We went to the vet and were told she probably had epilepsy and it's not uncommon for the breed. We were devastated. We were given some drugs to give her.

A couple months later she started having seizures in the morning and wouldn't stop. We had to rush her to the vet. Her temperature was in the danger zone and he had to put her in ice and give her IV valium to stop the seizures. She had been in one grand mal seizure for 2 hours. She was never the same again. She lost much of the use of her back legs. We took her to the UW Vet school to have specialists look at her to see if there was more we could do. They gave her another drug to try which seemed to help. In the meantime we also found out that her sibling had epilepsy too.

There was nothing more we could do for her than to continue to medicate her and watch her blood levels, continually adjusting the medication. With all the meds, she became lethargic, put on extra weight and couldn't really do much. This continued for the last 4 years.

Sazi loved to lay in the shade in the grass and just watch the world go by. Occasionally she would join in while Delaney and I played frisbee. She was never very good at catching it but she was great and bringing it back and lying down next to me with it in her mouth.

I will never forget the way she looked in your eyes with so much love in her heart. She will be missed forever. Rest in peace sweet Sazi.