Acer's Last Day
As many of you know, Acer developed Epilepsy when he was a little over
one year old. We fought it for the next 8 months of his life, and in
his last month he really deteriorated, having numerous seizures on a
weekly basis. Then on the morning of Feburary 25, he started having
seizures, and by evening he was no longer able to walk on his own. We
gave him some valium, hoping that a good night sleep would help to
decrease the seizure effect. The following morning he was able to walk
again, but right after breakfast he had another seizure, and never got
back up on his own feet. We carried him inside, and Renee sat with him
for about 3 hours. He was completely alert, but no longer able to
control his body. Not being able to do his normal stuff made him very
confused and upset at first, but after a while he settled down and
just lied quietly with Renee until the Vet arrived. Dr. Wellborne was
in complete agreement with us. He gave Acer the injection, and Acer
was gone just a few seconds later.
We took Acer up to the eco-area where Renee does research. It is several
hundred acres of fenced in preserve that the University of South
Florida keeps for biological research. We used to take Acer up there
and let him run around off-lead. We found a spot in some pine trees
that looked nice, and buried him along with his toys and blanket. We
piled about 50 pine-cones on top of his grave, since that was his
favorite thing to fetch and munch on when we took him up there.
We had known for the last month that this was inevitable. All of the
medical options had been tried; Acer did not respond to any of the
classical drug treatments for Epilepsy, and Dr. Wellborne was of the
opinion that Acer would never be seizure-free. But, we also knew that
we could not do it until he reached a point like he did that morning.
It was just too sad to watch anymore. It was a long hard road to that
point, and the two of us were total basket cases through the
weekend. We are getting better, but the house is incredibly empty now.
Leigh B. Stoller
<stoller@cs.utah.edu>
PGP Public Key