R.I.P. Juna 1994-2008

It is with a heavy heart that I tell you we had to euthanize Juna tonight. She would've been 15-yrs old in a few months. The photo above reflects her final weekend spending most of her time in her dog bed. It was obvious to EK & me that her time was short; her crippling arthritis had moved beyond the uncomfortable stage, even with increased narcotic pain medication.

This afternoon she could no longer walk at all. Her once powerful rear legs were simply too twisted to support her. She made a few valiant efforts to walk, but kept falling down, sometimes in obviously uncomfortable positions. We knew she was not going to rally from this; there would be no recovery; she had reached the end of her time. Funny, how fast those 15-yrs flew by.

All dogs are special. I know this is true. I wouldn't want to live in a world without dogs. They are much more than companions. That's why we couldn't let Juna suffer any longer. And truthfully, before today, she did not seem to be suffering much, but then she was always a stoical dog. But something gave out for her this afternoon. She could no longer fake it. Her stoicism was gone. It was time.

The afterhours pet clinic people were wonderful. She did not suffer for even a second. We petted her and reassured her all during the short process. I watched her eyes as she lost consciousness. There was no fear, no trouble, just peacefulness. Afterwards, I stayed in the room with her for a few minutes to say goodbye. She will be cremated & her ashes returned to us this week.

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These are some old photos of happier days. The quality is poor, but it doesn't matter since Juna was never a photo- genic dog. You can recognize her by her big ears. Try clicking if you wish to enlarge the blurriness.

Always self-confident, always the top dog, a powerful dog driven by one desire ... to be with her humans. She listened to everything we said and tried her best to anticipate & do what we wanted.


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A few things I'll always remember about Juna:

Before she went deaf, Juna was a singing dog, with a decided preference for The Star Spangled Banner, The Marine Corps Hymn, and the theme for Jeopardy.

She always knew the way. When hiking, she picked out the trail & led us. On the way out, when confronted with a fork in the trail, she would stop & look at us for direction. She never needed guidance on the way back.

When staying in motels while traveling, she would carefully note which room was ours and would lead us back to it everytime, no matter how large the complex, no matter how many stairs or elevators or hallway turns were involved. She knew which room was ours and corrected us if we made a wrong turn.

She loved to chase rabbits, squirrels, horses, skunks (she was skunked twice), birds (crows pissed her off), lizards, pretty much anything that moved. She once chased a cougar into chapparel country. No fear. She could spend hours running up and down hillsides chasing her ball.

She had big soft floppy lips -- part of her Labrador heritage mix. When she drank water, she left more of it on the floor than got in her mouth. She once found a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest & brought it to me in her soft mouth, undamaged.

She spent a lot of time staring down statues of people or animals, always giving them wide berth. We think it was because she recognized their shapes but could not figure out why they did not move. Lawn ornaments of rabbits were a particular fascination.

She could never pass up a grassy hillside without rolling down it on her back. If the grass was tall, she'd try stomach-rolling, resembling an alligator swimming through the everglades. Any grassy patch was an opportunity to roll, but hillsides DEMANDED rolling!

This year, as her arthritis was slowly crippling her, we had to cut short the long walks she had always enjoyed so much. We tried shortening the route from 2-miles, down to 1-mile, but eventually she was only able to barely make it down to a common grassy area at the end of our block. By May, she was unable to even make it that far, but she still wanted to go on our nightly walks, so I would slowly walk her to a vacant lot next door where rabbits like to hide, which gave her a bit of a thrill sniffing them out. By last week, she was unable to even hobble that distance.

Well, I could go on & on. Thanks for sticking with me this far. Tomorrow I will be cleaning and paring the house down to one dog's worth of stuff. I just couldn't bring myself to do it tonight. Yes, the deputy dawg is doing fine; in fact, he is laying here beside me now, having some kind of running dream, maybe remembering how he & Juna used to run together.

R.I.P. Juna --- you were always our best girl, the most observant, most motivated dog, and we will miss you forever!