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OSA 1999-2012

We realized when our rescued akita, Sashi died at the age of 12,that whatever our intentions were: to be freer, to be able to eat a meal in peace, to travel, to be able to sit through long operas and not have a sitter for her, all of those things, that we could not survive without another akita in our home. We’d been on ARSF’s web site many times, always with tears in our eyes and sobs in our hearts, but then one day we saw the picture of Osa.

I called and spoke to Dorie(an angel) who told me that Osa was in the center of the state with another angel, Marsha Gregory. We made arrangements to drive up from Miami to see her. The minute she was brought out and stood up against the counter to make sure that there was no food there, that taking her home was the only way to make the hole in our hearts smaller.

We brought her home and had the ten most wonderful years and eventful as well, with her.She was 3 or 4 at that time and beautiful and mannered(except if she could steal food from the counter). We found loaves of bread everywhere----buried in our closets and our sofas. The frozen turkey just disappeared completely. She was a wonderful traveller and attracted attention everywhere and was welcomed everywhere. She was a perfect guard dog yet loved babies. Over a period of a month she accepted our ferret as her family,see pic(don’t try this at home)and when that ferret died she accepted our three old male rescues as well.

We took her for accupuncture biweekly, used some pain meds, massaged her for hours a day but eventually could not ease her pain nor slow the dementia.Our wonderful veterinarian Jim Bogdansky made certain that the experience of euthanasia was dignified and compassionate. I’m sure that there’s no one reading this who hasn’t experienced the same feelings.So there’s that hole in our hearts again.

After a week we called Dorie and are now waiting for Shade to be delivered to the half way point between Jacksonville and Miami, this Saturday.Our grieving will be less then, and our hearts will heal again.