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Jasmine, a Black Lab

Jas passed on two years ago last month. I still expect her to come running up to love on me. She died of a condition, I can’t recall the name, but her stomach turned upside down and cut off blood supply to her abdomen. I came on suddenly. I let her out to do her thing at 6:30. I let her in at 9:30. She was a different dog. She came in dragging her tail and with her head hanging and those big brown eyes looking at me; calling for help.

She went into the kitchen and laved down on the cool tile. I tried to get her to drink, but she couldn’t. My wife recognized what was going on and we called around and found an emergency vet.

The drive took 45 minutes. My wife sat in the back stroking Jas’s head and talking to her.

Jas never cried. She just looked to me and my wife to asking us to help her.

The vet was great. She explained out options. She also expressed serious doubts about a successful recovery because of the length of time Jas’s blood supply had been cut off to her abdomen.

We decided to free her from her pain put her down.

My wife and I said goodbye for several minutes. The vet’s staff gave us some privacy and we said goodbye to our special dog. She was less than 2 months from being 13.

I mentioned Jas was a special dog. We discovered that when Jas was 4 months old. She loved children of all ages. We were holding a garage sale. A neighbor brought her new baby (1 month old) in a bassinet and set the baby on the driveway. Jas got away from me and raced her 40 pounds of pure energy to the baby. All of the adults were stunned and horrified. However, my special Jas got a couple of feet from the baby and laid on her belly. Then, she walked on her belly (like a duck walk) to the baby and sniffed the child. Then she carefully got up and returned to me.

Jasmine made friends with everyone. Every child in the neighborhood (including children we never met) would come up to the fence to say hello to Jas. Now, realize when Jas was grown she weighed 85 pounds. When she came to the fence to bark “Hello, come pet me !!!!”. Jas had her front feet on top of the fence. When she barked, she would lift her rear feet off the ground. If she wanted to, she could have climbed the fence, but never did.

The postmen offered to take off out hands. All the children wanted to take her home with them.

We lived next door to a half-way house for abused children. The children were being evaluated to determine if they could be adopted, go to foster care or need extensive help. We were not aware of it, but Jas would go to the fence in the back yard when the children were on a break and let them love on her, and she them. She would not bark or growl when a stick got stuck through the chain link for the dog to play with. She would grab the stick and gently play with eh kids.

One day, my wife was in the carport with Jas. From the half-way house back yard came a 4 year old girl’s call “Jaaaaassssmin, JAAAAAssssmin, I save a doughnut for you from breakfast. Come and get it!” The dog looked at my wife; who said “go on”. Zooom, the doughnut was history.

Some time went by and the half-way house moved to another location. About 3 weeks after they moved I answered a knock at the front door. To my surprise, a counselor and 3 children from the house were at the door. I was pleased and invited them in. However, they all said they wanted to know if they could visit JASMINE. Well, we went to the back yard and played with the dog.

We miss Jasmine every day and grieve for her.

Thanks for letting me let you tell Jas’s story.

Jim and Kathy from TX

jasmine