Zachey Poo

Picture from Colorado Dog Magazine- Dec '07

Zachey Poo is our 5 yr old Great Dane. He is one of the most unique and special dogs I've ever met- which is exactly why I adopted him 4 years ago.

I was single when I adopted him, and only had Bobbie and Sadie- it was just the 3 of us. He had no manners, was not house trained, and not crate trained when I adopted him, but his souful eyes and hilarious personality outweighed all of those negatives.

He slept next to me in bed like another human, went to all of our public events together and rarely, rarely ever left my side. I could trust him 100% in any situation with any other dog or person.

Our lives together have been full of medical ups and down. Surgery for stomach issues, a few bone cancer scares, unexpected and still unexplained seizures, torn ACL, soft tissue injuries..the list goes on and on. All of these things are life threatening to Zach because his has such horrible orthopedic issues and a brain lesion, so surgery is never an option.

Sadly though, in the last 2 years Brian and I have been on the edge of our seats when it comes to Zachey Poo. His behavior is odd at best, we jokingly call him "Rain Man" because if we change his routine he either has a seizure or will rock back and forth until we figure out what it is that is troubling him. "What's wrong, Zachey?" is said often in our home.

Brian and I would do ANYTHING for this dog.

In the last 2 weeks, Zachey has begun pacing outside alot. Again, strange behavior isn't too uncommon from him, but seeing as how he has spent the last year rarely leaving our walk in closet, this is strange. We didn't' give it too much worry until this past weekend when the high was 26, and he was still outside. Last night Brian actually had to go into the yard, leash him, and bring him back inside because there was no way we would have slept knowing he was out there in the cold.

We are going to his vet today to see if there is anything causing this. Of course, we are concerned his pain is high, which is not a good thing. It is also very possible it is some sort of dementia, and if it is, it begs the question "Is he living a good life?". We will never allow Zachey to live with pain if we can't manage it from meds.

All we can do is hope for the best and continue to give Zachey Poo the quality of care he deserves. We adore, adore, adore this sweet boy! I cannot imagine our home without him, so I pray Dr Rob laughs at our worry and send us on our way!