"Pets and The Elderly: How One Helps The Other"
By - Rusty
felix8@ptd.net

The year was l962 and it was the time that my mother, who had become a widow a few years ago, and I decided to move into a brand new apartment complex in an entirely new area of the state so that I could be closer to the job and no longer have to commute so far each day. I will forever remember the day of the move. The moving van arrived and our furniture and possessions were packed onto the van fully expecting to have everything placed into our new apartment home. Well, we were in for a shock… when we arrived, there were a variety of contractors working in our apartment. The moving van insisted on removing our possessions which were then placed into the apartment next door which was already finished. What a day that was.

Shortly after moving in and getting settled, I was walking around the neighborhood and came across a cat. Having always loved animals, I naturally stopped to pet it and play with it. The next time I took a walk, my boy friend, who was not yet my husband, came with me and once again we met the cat. I was not sure if it was a stray or if it belonged to someone. He finally convinced me not to "steal" the cat because someone might just be letting it out for its daily adventure. I was truly pining for an animal companion at this time and went to the manager of the apartment complex and requested permission to have a pet. Well, he liked me and he liked my mother and he said it would be fine. I was thrilled but I still wasn't completely sure how to go about getting a pet.

We had only been in the apartment for about a month having moved in the month of November. Then Sunday, December l5th arrived, which by all circumstances should have been just another normal ordinary Sunday. The door bell rang and my boy friend was there and said he had brought us a turkey that we could cook up for Christmas eve and he was going to put it into the freezer for me. I said fine and didn't pay much attention to what he was doing in the kitchen. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a movement on the floor. When I looked down I saw the most adorable, darling little golden colored puppy I had ever seen. What a sweetheart - then I realized what he was doing in the kitchen, bringing us a puppy, not a turkey.

Well, Heidi as she was named became the apple of my mother's eye and, of course, I loved her completely. My only problem was that I had to go to work daily whereas my mother could stay home with Heidi all day. Each weekend Heidi and I would go for long walks in the woods and each morning before work, we did the same in a ocal school area that was surrounded by lots of free land. At this time, it was obvious that my mother's health was gradually getting worse and I started being more and more concerned. Often the neighbors would chat with me and tell me that they would see my mother walking Heidi around the entire apartment complex at least twice a day and how happy my mother seemed to be when she had Heidi with her. Of course, I was delighted and I was frequently told by my mother's doctor that this was excellent therapy for my mother.

February of l963 was a cold month with lots of snow and blustery winds. However, I always heard my mother still took those daily walks but, of course, she was quite bundled up for warmth. Never will I forget the day when I got a phone call at work from a neighbor in the apartment complex. He told me he had heard a dog barking and barking non-stop, just bark, bark and more barks. Finally he decided to investigate where the sound was coming from and what was causing the problem. Well, my mother was lying on the ground, in a heap of snow and Heidi was protecting her by barking in an attempt to seek help for my mother. The leash had slipped from her hand but Heidi did not desert her. The neighbor managed to get my mother and Heidi home before I got to the apartment. I immediately called the doctor and was told that my mother had a stroke and needed to be put into the hospital immediately. The doctor also said that it was Heidi who had actually saved her life with the continuous barking.

My mother was admitted after the ambulance took her to the hospital and she remained there for nearly a month before being released after extensive therapy and treatment for the stroke. During this time, poor Heidi was so lonesome and depressed and could not understand where my mother was. Finally my mother came home - for a while - then a month or so later, she developed some serious heart problems and once again was admitted to the hospital. Once again my mother came home and slowly started to take short walks around the development. During one of these sessions, she apparently dropped Heidi's leash - at least that is what she said to me. I was upset but did not give it any further thought at the time.

Then after just about two or three weeks, my mother was once again admitted to the hospital on a Thursday evening as an emergency but this time her heart literally ruptured and she passed away two days later on Saturday. That Friday evening I had gone to visit her in the hospital telling her I would be there on Saturday morning with a special lunch for her. At that time, I was unaware of the dangers of leaving a dog in a locked car, thefts, etc. So Heidi and I went to the hospital that Saturday morning and I parked the car under a tree that would provide lots of shade. The radio was playing and the announcer interrupted to say the time was now ll:50 A.M. All of a sudden, and I will never forget this, Heidi began to cry and howl in a manner that I had never heard. Her eyes got wild, she shook and just looked extremely upset. My first impression was that she had some kind of a seizure or fit and I was going to get her to a vet as soon as I had visited my mother.

I walked into the hospital and took the elevator to the floor where my mother was situated but there was a nurse outside the door and she refused to allow me to enter. When questioning why, she told me "your mother passed away ten minutes ago." I looked at my watch and it was l2 noon. I went into shock - not only upon the loss of my mother but because I realized that Heidi had her "fit" the exact moment that my mother had died.

Arrangements were made for the funeral and subsequent burial service at the cemetery. Although it was a strange thing to do, I decided to bring Heidi with me to the cemetery since Heidi and my mother had always been so very close. My boy friend and I then took Heidi along with us and when the coffin was about to be lowered into the ground, Heidi nearly pulled him off his feet - she wanted to jump into the hole and onto the coffin (all 25 pounds of her). Her cry was so heartbreaking. How she knew what was going on, I did not understand. But she knew when she died and that she was now leaving forever.

Shortly after everything was over, probably a month or so later, I noticed that Heidi was acting very strange, not just depressed, but her bodily shape seemed different and at times when I would play with her, I felt something like a sticky substance coming from her nipples. All I could think of was that she had gotten pregnant when my mother dropped the leash that time. You see, in those days I did not know about the necessity of spaying and neutering pets. By this time, Heidi was about seven years old. When I brought Heidi to the veterinarian for a checkup to see what was going on, the vet said that she was pregnant but at the same time, he was not completely sure - the "feel" was not exactly normal. He proceeded to question me and asked if anything very traumatic had happened in our lives lately. Naturally, I told him about my mother's passing and the relationship Heidi and my mother shared. He then told me to prepare my apartment in case it was a true pregnancy but I should not be surprised if it turned out to be a false pregnancy (something I had never heard of at the time) because of the emotional trauma she went through. Well, it did turn out to be a false pregnancy, and as soon as I realized that, she was immediately spayed.

Heidi and I kept our loving, close relationship until she was l4 years old and then her heart just couldn't keep her going any longer and I finally had to bring peace to Heidi by putting her to sleep. It broke my heart but I knew she was now free of pain and a perfect being on the other side.

Submitted by E. B. Russell
February 28, 2002