Duchess

We had just lost our first Mastiff to Osteosarcoma on November 2005 and had talked about waiting a year before getting another dog. We soon realized how empty the house felt without a Mastiff and decided it would be selfish to not give a Mastiff in need a chance. For whatever reason, week after week, there were no Mastiffs for adoption in NC, but in late December we saw Duchess’ pictures and story under Florida.

She was an 8 year old Mastiff girl missing an eye and with an abnormal gait from old cruciate ligament ruptures not repaired on time. She was on medication for urinary incontinence but was healthy otherwise.

Apparently her appearance had kept people form adopting her for the 3 years she had been in rescue. They had reposted her picture one more time just to give her a chance. Looking at her picture and sweet face, I knew right away she was the Mastiff for us.

On January 28^th 2006, we met Karen in Savannah, GA to pick Duchess up and bring her home. She greeted us very happily and threw herself to the floor to roll and have her chest and belly petted. All the way home she was an angel and actually slept most of the 8 hour trip back home.

Once home she had to learn a few things like not eating our dinner from the table( which she learned in less than 3 days) and not pinning the cats down to sniff them (that took a little longer to learn, although she never bit or hurt them in any way ). She adjusted to our house quickly and made us laugh playing with any ball she found (she popped about 4 or 5 of them) and popping any balloons she could get her teeth on. We slowly increased our daily walks from just 1 block to a 15 minute walk. She even started to run in little spurts during her walks to the point even the neighbors mentioned how much more energetic she seemed. We started obedience classes mainly for the mental stimulus of seeing other dogs, since due to her age and orthopedic problems we let her just lay down and eat treats.

In June she started coughing a little when she got excited and at night. It seemed to go away and her x-rays didn’t show any abnormalities. Unfortunately, this was an early sign of what was coming. In August, her energy level seemed to decrease and a heart murmur was detected, then an arrhythmia.

Despite the help of the cardiologists at NC State, Duchess’s heart kept going into ventricular arrhythmias with more frequency. To make a long story short, she went into heart failure for the second time on September 27^th. This time we decided to let her go because she had stopped eating and for the last week she would cry and look for me every time her arrhythmia kicked in (which had progressed to several times a day).

Although it was very sad and difficult to lose Duchess so soon, I can promise you nothing compares to having witnessed her blossom once she realized she had a family that loved her and a permanent home of her own. We will never forget her courage, playful personality and love towards everyone she met. I am thankful I had the honor to take care of her during her last 8 months of life and hope our story, although sad, encourages others to give the older Mastiffs a much needed home.