Rex Griffin, Author

Hope

Hope

Hope FB.jpg
 
 

When I adopted Hope from Henryetta Animal Aid and Rescue Team (H.A.A.R.T.) four and a half years ago, she was still recovering from surgery for injuries in an auto accident. She recovered fully until, almost a year ago, she began struggling to stand. At that time I started picking up her rear end to help her stand. Too, she was losing her sight, which had never been good, especially at night.

Two years ago, her mobility got so bad I started giving her Vetprofen every day, just to help her stand and walk. Around New Year’s she became disoriented, and I thought she had gone completely blind. She recovered somewhat, but seemed overly-affectionate, almost desperately so, like she wanted to stay very close to me. Then, Monday night she had a violent seizure. She came out of it, though was extremely disoriented, which leads me to believe she probably had one around New Year’s that I did not know about. The next day she was as fine as she has been in several weeks.

But yesterday, while she slept beside my desk chair, she pooped in the floor, not even waking. That’s something totally new and signals deterioration in her quality of life. I do not want to see her erode further, so today Hope crossed the Forever Bridge. Wait for me, sweet girl, until we can be together again.

Hope is a Border Collie-Australian Shepherd cross. Hit by a vehicle and so badly injured the vet was debating whether to put her down, H.A.A.R.T., Henryetta Animal Aid and Rescue Team, stepped in to save her life. Once over her surgery, HAART had no place to keep her, so boarded her at the vet until I fostered her. I flunked fostering and adopted Hope soon after. HAART gave Hope her name, and I never changed it.

She looks to have been spayed before she ever had puppies, and her original owners took great care of her. I believe that a secondary owner took her, someone who already had a dog or dogs. Like most Border Collies, she loves people—but detests other canines, which I suspect led her to wander alone the streets of Henryetta. It took a while to calm the growling and teeth-baring around here, and we still have the occasional flare-ups. But Hope gets along well enough in her autumn years.

She joined the family in August, 2015, to cross the Rainbow Bridge January 17, 2020.