Rainbow Bridge

Raz

Raz loved the snow

When he first came to live with us, Raz was very restless at night.  He reminded me of the Alzheimer's patients that "sun-down".  After a couple nights, Jerry got the idea that he might be cold.  After all, he didn't seem to notice whether he was on a rug or bare floor, didn't have much hair and he was so terribly skinny.  We found that once he had a blanket on and got warmed up, he went off to sleep and allowed us to get some rest. 

Also, once his hair started to grow in, he became a beautiful gold and white collie colour.  Dr. Marling said it isn't uncommon for animals to be 'colourless' when they are malnourished.

Raz was a gentle dog

Raz was a very gentle dog and never a bother.  He had a loving spirit once his health began to improve.  When we got him, he seemed to be deaf, blind and without emotion.  Once he learned to trust and love us, his hearing was just fine and except for a slight cataract in one eye, his eyesight was very good.  He loved being outside with us and would even run a short distance, sometimes.  He would mouth my hand, like a puppy will do and even lie down on his back for me to rub his tummy.  We believe he was at the point of giving up when he was rescued.  His previous life must have been very cruel.

He has been a regular visitor to the vet clinic ever since he came to us. His mouth was so susceptible to infection.  In September, he caught a virus that he was never able to get over completely.  His resistance was still pretty low at that time, I'm sure.  He began to loose ground, slowly at first.  In early December, he started to losing interest in his food and his energy level went down steadily.  He ceased eating solid food a week before Christmas and would only consume liquids.  We tried everything but he just couldn't seem to get much of anything down, anymore.  He lost all the weight he had put on.  The last few days I had to give him water, beef broth and Pedialite by syringe.  He became so weak, he had to be lifted and carried when ever he needed to be re-positioned, moved to a different room or taken outside. As you can see in the photos, he loved the snow so we took him out to stand and eat a bit of it, as often as we could.

He will be missed by Jerry and I and our other pets.

Mary Miller