[LORHEL]

Last night, I lost my best friend. For those of you who have read my earlier posts, and the problems we were having with our one year old boy, Zeke, there were some things that we could just not overcome, with love, and everything else we have done. Last night, I took Zeke to the park where my husband was playing softball, and we were standing a distance from people passing by. Of course, he was muzzled, gentle leader, etc., and at first he was okay, but then some players walked by, and they got too close and he went nuts. I yanked on his gentle leader to get him to stop, but by that time, he was so upset, and huffing etc. that I waited until they passed, and put him back in the Jeep and went home. We didn't get to see my husband, but someone told him they thought they saw us. He told me later that night, he had a bad feeling something had happened when we were there. I called our trainer who had seen Zeke and been working with us, and she and I and my husband talked about the fact that despite being socialized for the last month, and the fact that he was socialized to a point anyway, there were too many strikes against Zeke to take any more chances. He did try to bite once, and we have had a couple other close calls. I truly believe his problem is genetics, and I know his father personally, and mother and there are issues. It hurt me to see him suffer in the sense that he felt people would hurt him, if they got too close. There have been so many episodes, and in looking back, this definitely didn't start with the puppy class, and the guy throwing him into the dominance hold then, although that had scarred him. I just wanted to thank everyone again for the advice and comments during this stressful period. We took Zeke last night, the trainer met us at the hospital, she was crying the minute he walked in. He was not bothered by her and us in the room, but when the vet came in with the shot, he got aggressive again. We all three held him, muzzled still, and when the shot was given, I looked him in the eyes and held him and told him I loved him for the last time. Afterwards my husband and I held each other and cried together. This was truly the hardest thing we have ever had to do. The hard part isn't wondering if we did the right thing, but that a big part of my time is now empty and he filled so much of my life with joy. The thing that made me decide it was finally time to put him to ease was the trainer said that the day we brought him to see her last month, she was going to recommend it then, but she saw how strong we were and how dedicated we were to him. After hearing us last night and how things still were, she thought it best too.
I still want to post Zekes pictures, so you can see what a beautiful angel he was for the short time he was with us. He is now with all the others at the bridge, watching us. Lori