 |
| Chum not long after his accident - he just kept going and learned to walk and play again. |
REMEMBER Chum, whose story was in issue four?
Well, sad to say Chum, a very feisty golden retriever, died naturally on July 3, 2003 - four days short of his 12th birthday.
After his terrible fall down a cliff when he was aged nine years and searchers not finding him until the next day, he was paralysed with damage to nerves between his shoulder blades. But he did walk again unaided thanks to his owner's 'never give up' attitude, was reasonably independent and became a typical older male - only interested in women and food!
Owner Bep Lambriex said "We had a lot of time together for the last two years and a lot of fun. I took him everywhere and he met lots of people, was a constant point of conversation and loved the attention. I will forever be grateful for the help I received from my children and friends with healing and looking after Chum.
"After six months he got up on his four feet, the day before I was going to take him to the vet to make a decision to persevere or to have him put down. He made that decision for himself thank you very much!
"To help him regain strength in his hind legs he was given steroid injections. I was warned by the vet that sometimes they can develop liver cancer as a result of these injections, but I took the risk. Eighteen months later he was indeed diagnosed with liver cancer in a very advanced stage and given four weeks to live. And again I could not let him go.
"I took him to a healer that mainly works with animals, horses in particular, no potions, nothing like that - I do not know what it is, but I believe in it. Chum lived another eight months but finally deteriorated over a period of about two weeks," she said.
"I told him one night that it was all right to go if he wanted to - and he did - quietly in his sleep he went to brighter pastures. When I think of him now, I see him hopping through the long grass, hiding behind the corner fencepost and forgetting that I can see his tail sticking up in the air. The vet and his wife in KeriKeri, after helping me enormously with the recovery of Chum, had wished him full recovery and more years of fun, which was exactly what he did achieve."
Bep said the extra years Chum had with her were worth all the perseverance and hard work it took in those first few months to get him on his feet again.
