More about "Spartan"

Spartan lived a short but wonderful life, given all that was wrong with his health. My husband bought our dog from a pet store. Within 24 hours of bringing him home, we had to rush him to our vet’s office where he stayed in intensive care for 2 weeks. He pulled through, only to develop sever arthritis at the ripe old age of 6 months. At that point, the vet gave our baby 2 years to live. We immediately put him on Deramax to alleviate the pain. He was in so much pain, he would drag himself outside, fall down and urinate on himself. We continued to up the dosage so he could function and be an active happy member of our family. When he was old enough I was determined to give him a better life and found a fantastic surgeon who began to replace his knee joints with artificial ones. Unfortunately, the long term usage of the Deramax caught up with him and his system shut down. He went into cardiac arrest this past Monday, June 27, 2005 and died at the vet’s office. He knew he was going, and didn’t want to die in our house.

Spartan was so smart, had a great personality and was very handsome. He could fetch (which I thought amazing, Akita’s aren’t supposed to do that), and he LOVED other dogs (another non Akita trait). I know I’ll never be able to replace him, and I didn’t realize how awful it would be to lose Spartan. I kept thinking if I could replace all of his joints in time I could get him off the medication before it killed him. I kept that thought with me on those long nights where I had to sit up with him when he was crying. He was only 2 ½ and it breaks my heart knowing that these pet stores and bad breeders are in it for the money, never once stopping to think about the pain and suffering of the animals and their owners.

I ended up losing my job because I couldn’t stay away from the house. I would come home on my lunch breaks and baby him. He was such a wonderful animal. I will never regret the amount of time and money spent on him. I am now thankfully retired, and Spartan only had to deal with me working the first 2 months of his life with us.

Our next dog will have as much, if not more loving attention now that I know how precious their lives are. I will never EVER purchase another animal from a pet store. Now I know that this just feeds the greedy, heartless people that own the pet stores and puppy mills.

I beg everyone who reads this to educate anyone who is considering purchasing a pet store animal. We all have the power to help stop the pain.

Pet Store Puppy: $1,500.00
ACA Registration (worthless): $50.00
Deramax pills: $1.84 each
(2 years + various other meds)
Emergency Vet Bills: $3,900.00
Regular Vet Bills: $4,000.00
Artificial Knee Replacement: $2,381.00
Shopping Trips To Pet Supermarket: Priceless
(They adopt out rescued pets and do not buy from puppy mills!) Watching Spartan Die: HEARTWRENCHING

Denise Samouilidis