Friday, February 21 became the day I had dreaded. My precious Cleo, just over 15 years old, had not been able to stand up and move around since Wednesday. She was peeing and pooping on herself and becoming depressed. My once incredibly athletic Mountain Cur mix had been suffering from Canine Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) for over a year. DM is a progressive disease that causes weakness and paralysis in a dog’s hind legs,. It’s the most common cause of hind leg weakness in older dogs. Acupuncture and Carprofen helped temporarily but she continued to decline. There was no longer any treatment option or medication to allow her to ambulate.
That Friday morning, I took Cleo to the dog park for one last time. All Cleo’s canine and human friends were able to say goodbye. As my veterinarian administered the sedative, I held Cleo’s paw, stroked her beautiful fur, and told her what I told her when I first adopted her out of the Woman’s Humane Society in 2010 “I’ll be with you till your last breath.”
Cleo, short for Cleopatra, was the perfect name for this supersmart and beautiful dog. Cleo always thought she was the hottest female canine in Southwest Florida and she acted the part. She always had an air of royalty about her. Soon after I adopted her I was training long-distance downs (about forty feet) outside with her and my other dogs Karnak and Daisy. Karnak and Daisy downed immediately. Cleo continued to sit there and looked down at her brother and sister with disdain. After all, she was the queen and wasn’t going to reduce her status to the level of her subordinates. In the canine world, height means status! Nevertheless, when Cleo realized there were sumptuous treats to be had on recall she immediately started downing quicker than her siblings!
I would often off lead Karnak and Cleo in our state park in Pennsylvania. Both dogs had tremendous recall so I wasn’t worried about losing them. Unfortunately, one Saturday morning Karnak failed to recall. Cleo kept on running up to me, turning around and running in a southeasterly direction. She continued this pattern three times until I realized she was trying to get me to follow her. She led me about a quarter mile right to Karnak who was in a standoff with a large 8-point buck. The buck looked like it was ready to charge Karnak and I was able to get him out of danger because of Cleo!
Cleo’s altruism didn’t extend to food. Daisy and Karnak never figured out to guard their food during mealtime! If they ever got distracted and went to greet someone at the front door, Cleo was always ready to eat their food to their bewilderment when they returned to their bowls! My “leave it” correction always came too late because Cleo was so adept at quickly emptying her sibling’s food bowls! She tried to act contrite but was always betrayed by her mischievous grin!
Out of the dark cloud of my grief, nevertheless, a bright ray of sunshine has come into my life. Her name is Bonnie. She is a gorgeous Plott hound I met a couple weeks ago while training the dogs at Lee County Domestic Animal Services. I adopted her this past Wednesday. She has the same mischievous grin Cleo had. I think Cleo is smiling at me through Bonnie and telling me she’ll be waiting for me in heaven when I take my last breath!
