I adopted Mackenzie in the Spring of 2003, a month after losing our first Doberman to cancer. I immediately took him to my vet, especially since Claudine had just helped him through heartworm treatment and since he could not sit (he had to lay down always.) My vet told me he had a spine injury that never healed properly, and someday he would have bad arthritis, but that it would be a 3-4 years away. I didn't care; I was in love. From the start he was the silliest dog I had ever known. He loved stuffed animals, and could tear them apart very quickly. That first Spring, it rained every day in NJ. After 15 years of eyeglasses, I had to cave and get contacts because Mackenzie loved to walk, and I was always drying my glasses. We walked 4-6 times per day so he could get to know me, our neighborhood and build muscle mass. (At first he looked like a greyhound dressed in Dobie colors.)
Mac had bad seperation anxiety, but only in that instant that you were leaving. One time he even grabbed the end of my winter coat sleeve to try to keep me from going! We lived next to a waterfront park, and I could walk him on and off leash every day along the edge of the bay. He would dig in the sand and run out in the water during low tide.
In the summer of 2004 we bought a house in Arizona. We packed up everything we owned into 2 cars. Kenzie looked so scared-- "Are my people really leaving me?!?!" But when I took him to the car and showed him his dog bed in the backseat (with belongings piled all around) he was so happy. We got to Arizona and his skin allergies immediately got better. He loved having his own yard with a big fence to protect and patrol.
Mac was nervous with other dogs. He would bark and sometimes rear up. Since he was a Dobie, this TERRIFIED people. I could never take him to a dog park or anywhere where there were lots of people. The next year my sister saw a really nice dog at the shelter. When I went to meet her, I fell in love-- she was listed as Dane Mix but her personality was all Great Dane. She was on the euthanasia list. I couldn't let them do that, so I brought her home. I was so scared that Mac would not like her, but he was immediately smitten. We named her Miss Billie.
What happened next was like Lady and the Tramp. They fell in love, or rather into a pack. Mac could go anywhere as long as Billie was there. I gradually started taking him to dog parks, and he became 100% comfortable around other dogs. I have pictures of them walking side by side, stride for stride at a local dog water park. I would occasionally catch him SPOONING her in the bed. He was normally a happy dog, but he became incredibly content.
Things were very good for almost 2 more years. But Mac got a disease called Valley Fever (caused by fungal spores in our soil here.) He responded well to medication. But then his back problems came back. We put him on Tramadol for the pain, as well as Deramaxx (very expensive med for arthritis.) After several months, the medication stopped working as well. One vet recommended an MRI & spinal surgery, but at approximately 9 years old, with a history of heartworms, it seemed risky.
I don't like to think about the last couple of months. It took us a while to accept that we needed to let him go. In the end my husband and my sister and I all held him as our loving vet helped him let go and move on to the rainbow bridge.
I still miss him digging in the sand, laying in the grass of his own yard, and playing with his toys. He was a great dog, and we loved him so very much.