Gorgeous black and white Dalmation dog with double blue eyes. Smart dog, and oh my, he was manipulative! Wizman, as I called him, had some anxiety issues and could be quite compulsive. Food was of particular concern to him. He was being starved by his previous owners before he was surrendered to the Humane Society. Only 10 pounds at four months old.
Wizman always obsessed over when and how much he would get fed. He also obsessed over wanting to play. He was a wild man when it came to the possibility of playing ball.
It wasn’t until he passed away and I thought of previous times with him, that I realized he was a trouble maker because he was so needy.
Wizman was beautiful to look at. Strong, two blue eyes, physically fit and very well trained. He lived with 2 other dogs and us. There was a fight amongst the dogs nearly everyday because of his neediness. He just couldn’t stop himself from his anxieties.
Wizard was head of the Pack because we only allow a dog to be leader amongst dogs based on seniority of age. The next dog in line, Tripp, very much disliked Wizard’s neediness so sometimes she would start a fight. Wizard would defend hinself but never started a fight. I always felt bad for him because Tripp would always get the best of him.
There came a day in 2010 where I knew that the Mantle of Superiority had changed amongst the Pack.
During the course of the year, Wizard’s health started to decline. Weak in the backend, couldn’t run like he used to, had trouble positioning himself to go to the bathroom. He was getting even needier.
On one of our morning walks the dogs were running and sniffing the ground. When Wizard went to check on what Tripp was sniffing, she attacked him. Because his rear end was now weakening, she knocked him over. He had great trouble in trying to stand. I stood near him and I felt his resolve leave him. I felt his defeat. I cried and cried!
We still had Wizard remain Pack leader but even he knew it was ‘false’.
A few months passed and Wizard’s back end continued to fail. The diagnosis was Degenerative Myelitis. Sad to watch this once powerful, vibrant boy lose control of himself.
By Fall Wizard’s symptoms progress to occasional kicking out of a rear leg. At first, I thought his leg had gone to sleep or he was experiencing some Sciatic Nerve pinch.
I would massage him and adjust him chiropractically and then it would stop. At first, the kicking out was intermittent but over time it increased.
In late Fall, Wizard seemed to be less joyful and had times of what looked like toxicity or Dementia. There were times when he was inconsolable and couldn’t get comfortable. I worked on him physically and then we ended up putting him on medication.
Wizard was reverting back to some puppy behaviors. One in particular was his desire to sleep in the bedroom closet. I could tell that lying on hard floors was painful for him, so I gave him a tremendous bed of mats and blankets. He loved it! He particularly liked for me to cover his head.
At Dawn, even in the darkened closet, he would come stand by my side of the bed and stare at me. I knew better than to open my eyes because if he saw me looking at his beautiful blue eyes he demanded that I get up to feed him.
We had already discussed that if Wizman ever stopped eating, we would ‘know’ that he was ready to die. We also discussed when we would help him ‘Graduate’ into spirit and not make his continued existence about saving us from broken hearts. Mine was already breaking over the last three weeks as I watched him decline.
November 8 – Wizard’s days are getting tougher. He is more disconnected from the Pack. I put him to bed around 9:30 pm. He was very uncomfortable. I put him back to bed at least twice. Around 11:00 he got out of bed again and went into the bathroom where he wedged himself behind the door. He was whining and couldn’t either back up or think how to get himself out of the corner.
We helped him out of the corner and started to take him out the front door, thinking he had to go to the bathroom. As he walked through the house he was repeatedly kicking his rear leg out behind him. I checked him for muscle spasms and there weren’t any.
Wizard was looking at us so we just stopped and laid him on the carpet of the living room.
Wizard was looking at me and very calmly said, “I gotta go! I can’t do this anymore! I do not want to be here like this during the Winter! You still need to go to the dog show tomorrow as planned. Because I don’t want you to associate me and dog shows as unhappy times”!
I immediately agreed and relayed the information to the others in the house. We gave him some medication and agreed to help him ‘Graduate’ tomorrow morning.
I told Wizard that we would stuff him with food like a Christmas Goose so he didn’t have to return in his next lifetime with food issues. We all smiled! Wizard slept well, we did not!
We took him to the vet the next morning. We had given him breakfast and while waiting for the doctor and needle, we stuffed him full of treats from the exam room. He was happy about that! The doctor came into the room and told us that we were ‘doing the right thing’. We said our goodbyes as he was being injected. He was gone even before all the needle was emptied into him. I cried like I never remember crying before.
The loss was horrible but I was grateful for the communication and the clarity that it brought.
We went home and prepared to leave for the dog show out of town. The two remaining dogs had recently gotten used to Wizard not coming to the shows because he stayed home with a dog sitter because he couldn’t navigate the stairs of the RV.
We returned home Sunday night. By Monday morning, Tripp realized that ‘something is wrong’. She has been attacking our youngest dog all day because she was now anxious about the current change.
When I was told about the attacking, i clearly heard spirit say to me, “she is scared now that Wizard is gone. She is now Pack leader and that position doesn’t allow for mistakes”.
When I got home, I brought Tripp into another room so that I could ‘work’ on her energetics. In silence, with closed eyes, I began to remove Wizard’s grids from the house, all associated Real Estate and attachments, toys, people and other dog. I then removed all of these aforementioned things from Wizard’s grids. In about 30 minutes, I was done.
Tripp got up from the session, sighed and walked away. She never again had a problem with Wizard’s absence or her new position after that.
I am grateful for what I am allowed to facilitate to be of service to others.