oscar - the audio analyst©

Oscar – A Great Dane

~8 November 2008 – 23 September 2019

Lazing on our back stoop, watching me grill, with that paw-crossed, regal pose of his…summer 2016

It is under the weight of almost unbearable loss that I write today. It is so hard to believe that this lovable and loving, big, goofy, needy, clingy, loyal, and super-affectionate rascal is gone. He came to live with us on November 5th, 2013. That story is below, if you care to see it. As we had no records from his rescue, on our first visit to our Vet that following Saturday he was pronounced “about 5-years old.” As such, we have chosen to celebrate his birthday on November 8th annually.

Most dog people know that larger breeds have shorter life-spans; Great Danes are expected to live 8-10 years. So with Oscar, we were lucky enough to have him these past six years, to almost see his 11th birthday.

There is no doubt that his vigor and capabilities have been dwindling over the past year-and-a-half or two, but to see him run outside, chasing the neighbor’s dogs along the entire length of the fence, or just running with Luna and Aerie (our other two Great Danes), you could see he had no trouble running, bounding up and down as he ran, looking like a puppy, and was truly enjoying himself.

But over the past weeks, he had taken a decided turn for the worse. He had become routinely incontinent, unable or unconcerned about getting off the bed and going outside to defecate. He struggled with the straight-shot staircase up to the garage and out to the back yard, often faltering, occasionally stumbling, on his way up.

While he has always had a hunched back, slumped hips and rear legs (we’re convinced he was kept in too small a crate when younger), he was struggling when getting up and having great difficulty standing still for any length of time. His rear-end would slowly sag and he would have to sit down, or walk a bit to stay standing.

He could no longer get on the bed by himself. Kim found an Ottoman at the perfect height that I was able to put between the wall and the bed so he could step up onto it, then onto the bed.

He had started to slip and fall more regularly, not out in the grass of our fenced-in two acres, where he still was walking and running very well, but in the house, especially when making a turn, or when having to back up. His rear legs would just go out from under him.

This morning, September 23, about 1:20 AM, I was awoken as Aerie got off the bed and headed out our automated dog door to go outside. It smelled as if Oscar had relieved himself on the bed again… I switched on the bedside light, and proceeded to clean things up. He looked at me like he had given up. I crouched down on the floor with my face by his, and told him that I wasn’t angry, that I knew he was loosing control of his body. He reached his long left front leg out, and put his enormous paw gently on my right shoulder. He leaned his face closer to me, licked the tear that was dripping down my cheek, and rolled his head back and sighed. I knew he would tell me when he was ready, and that time, as difficult as it was to accept, had come.

I called our Vet as soon as they opened and we made an appointment to take him in. When we arrived, Kim went in to make sure his room was ready while I walked him around the grass and trees outside. When all the arrangements were made, she called me to walk him straight in.

We asked for a big blanket for him, and after they brought it in, he laid down. I got down on the floor right beside him, all the while petting and talking to him to make sure he stayed calm and knew that we were there with him. The technician gave him an intravenous sedative shot in his back leg, and within seconds, he plopped his big old head down on my leg and started to relax. After about seven minutes, he seemed to be out, and the Dr. administered the heart-stopping medication. Within minutes, with his head on my lap, and both of us petting and talking to him, she announced that he was at rest; his heart had stopped at 10:42 AM.

Knowing, without doubt, that letting him go was the right thing, the humane thing to do, does not allow the doing to come any easier, or weigh less heavily. He was such a good, loving, affectionate lad… It is no exaggeration to say that life will just not be the same without this caring, sweet furry family member. We love you, Oscar. Farewell.

Digging some attention…

Hamming it up in the sun…

Napping on the bed…

Sitting on the glider right beside me…

“Sitting” on the couch in the living room…

Using my chair footrest as a pillow in the theater…

On his seventh birthday…

On his eighth birthday…

On his tenth birthday, and this photo was used in an article that appeared in Positive Feedback Magazine…

An app created “pencil sketch” of the big ol’ lunk on the patio…

Another app based rendering of our handsome boy, with Luna too, by Kim’s flower garden…

The last photo I took of our sweet “little”boy, about 8:00 AM, September 23, 2019

Meet Oscar

Kim had a niece who, after meeting our Aerie and Luna, had decided that she was very fond of Great Danes. She found a 5-year-old boy named Oscar. However, with her expecting a new baby and her work schedule, she had very little time for him. And, her yard was not fenced in. So he spent most of his time by himself in the house, much of that time crated. On November 8, 2013, he came to live with us…

Weighing just 110 pounds when he arrived, he was awfully thin. He hadn’t cared for the food he was getting at his last home. Worse, because he was not eating much prior to his arrival here, when we’d feed him anything more than about a cup and a half of food, he would end up unable to keep it down. This dictated smaller, more frequent feedings.

For the first 10 days, he ate about every 2 and a half to three hours. I’d feed him before I left for work at 6:00, and he’d eat regularly until bed time, about 10:00 or 10:30, nightly. Within two weeks, we had him up to 116 pounds, and our Vet said there was NO need to rush to pack weight on. So, we just continued frequent feedings, even though he was able to keep larger (2 to 2 and a half cups at a time) portions down now.

He is the sweetest boy. He just loves people and follows Kim or I everywhere. Here are some of photos of this happy, handsome, big o’ Dane…