Jethro

…..he was my seizure dog as I have Epilepsy…we were best friends.

Written by Jethro and Winston’s owner.

I’d like to write a memorial to my sweet Jethro who changed everything in my life. I would love for him to have a memorial with his pictures. He’s was so cute and it is such a shame that no one will ever get to see his gorgeous little face again.

I also need to write about our NBGR foster dog Winston. He was quite a handful. Not sure what the problem was, but without warning, he’d attack other dogs, so it made him unadoptable. Finally, someone did want to adopt him but by then, we just couldn’t part with him since we figured the change would probably set him back into that ‘dark place’ again. Sadly, two years ago at Christmas Winston (6 years old) had a heart attack and died within 30 minutes. It was awful.

His favorite victim, Jethro, who was also six years old has just passed away. Unlike Winston, we had Jethro since infancy. Jethro and I had that bond that everyone speaks of when it comes to the Griffs and their Velcro person. Jethro and I did everything together. We were best friends. Jethro was my seizure dog as I have Epilepsy. Winston also had seizure disorder, so it was a good mix for those 2 and a great one for me. We have 2 other dogs, and since Jethro left our world, they are in mourning too. Me though, I can’t seem to even function.

That morning, Jethro was fine. Oddly, that afternoon, Jethro started getting very itchy, so much so that I took him to the vet. Within an hour they told me that it wasn’t itching but a seizure and the fact that he wasn’t stopping was a very bad sign. Within 2 hours of that announcement, he lost complete use of his back legs! I took him home with a lot of pain medicine, anti-seizure medicine, and enough medicine to relax a football player. It did nothing. He went into what appeared to be grand mal by late evening.

Our other dogs, who are younger and usually roughhousing day and night, started to snuggle with him as he seized and kept licking him. Then one started to lay on his face and I knew that she was going to put him out, so I took Jethro to another room to let him sleep with me, by ourselves, for his last night. I never slept, obviously, poor Jethro didn’t either, and I just kept telling him Winston would be there to greet him and how much he was loved and to be a good little boy for God and that when my turn came, I’d be right there to get him.

Run free and be happy my sweet Jethro.