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| ZEPPELIN |
Zeppelin was born in the summer of 1990, but I do not know the exact date. My brother and his son rescued him as a puppy from a shelter. Unfortunately, they could not keep him and I agreed to care for him. I had him from the fall of 1990 until his death in September of 2006. And, yes, I am told he was named after the singing group, Led Zeppelin. If you want to see some pictures, click to see Zeppelin's Gallery.
The following article was written in February, 2005.
In January of 2003, Zeppelin became crippled. I have no idea why, because there was no immediate cause that I can recall. It must have resulted from a degenerative condition or, perhaps, one of his fights with Bo, Jack or Jake, may have caused some damage that has degenerated. Zeppelin made remarkable recovery, although it is not a total recovery. At least he can walk and run fairly well.
He is happy and does not cry as long as he is with me. He is not and never seemed to be in pain. He just could not walk. I take care of him very well and love him a lot. He only barks or cries when I am not right with him, but that is nothing new.
When he became crippled, I had a few choices. First, back surgery was a possibility, but I could not afford that. Second, he could have been euthanized, and I suspect that most people would have elected that course on the theory that he should not be made to suffer. The third and more difficult choice was to make him as comfortable as possible and hope that his body would heal itself.
Zeppelin was not in pain, had a good appetite, was drinking water very well and, other than his inability to walk, he was in great shape. More importantly, he was very happy when I was around and I love him very much! Therefore, I elected to hope that his body would heal itself. I laid down plastic, sheets and towels on my floor. He was very smart about going to the bathroom when I was around, although I came up a somewhat clever (I think) arrangement whereby he did not lay in his urine, if he did go when I was not there. It did not work perfectly, but did work reasonably well.
Whatever time and effort I spent was worth it. First, it worked and remarkably he got up on his four feet over Memorial Day weekend of 2003 and has been walking ever since then! Secondly, I have never had a dog that wanted to mind me as much as Zeppelin and he was worth all the effort. He has a little trouble socializing, because he is very protective of me. But, he wants to do “right” so much!!! He is a really great kid!!!!
Unfortunately, he and Jack and Jake do not get along. I have had to keep them separated for most of the time since Jack and Jake came into my house. Part of Zeppelin’s problem is that he had gotten to be top dog and then along came these big guys, which respected him for only a few months. After that they all wanted to be top dog. While I try to convince them that everyone would be much happier if we all got along, I make about as much sense to them as the United States does to Sadam Hussein.