Tonight we said our good-byes to Amazing Grace. As we do with all of the animals at Birch Haven, we have brought her body home to lay rest in our special place overlooking the spring fed pond surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. She is now pain free and tonight we mourn. Tomorrow we will honour her for I will create her memorial page and upload some of the pictures we have taken of her. A candle burns brightly in our house at this time as I cry for the world has lost a very precious creature tonight. As I always say; hug your loved one’s tightly for we do not know what tomorrow might bring.

I am very saddened to write that our Amazing Grace is extremely ill. On top of everything else she has a very aggressive bacterial skin infection and her body is just not strong enough to fight the battle she has such as cancer of that one leg with the lump embedded deep into the bone. Her blood count is very low and her body is simply just shutting down. We have made the very difficult decision to put her to sleep tomorrow night to end her suffering. Please keep her in your thoughts or light a candle in her memory for she is truly a very special and sweet girl.

We are still waiting for the test results to come back for our Amazing Grace. She is so very sad and it is extremely hard to watch her like this. We were told it could take up to a week to hear anything. When I was working at the Hospital yesterday, I did not see anything in her file, so we continue to wait.

Amazing Grace is now home and I have begun treating her left eye with antibiotics. She was such a GREAT patient at the Vet Hospital and really made a wonderful impression on the staff. Her needle aspirates and the biopsy will be sent off to Histology at Guelph University for analysis yet with two Vets having taken a good look at her, they fear that the news will not be good on that one fungal type lump embedded to the bone. We also await the results of her bw. She was happy to see me yet when I put her into her ‘house arrest’ pen; you could tell her spirits really dampened down. I spent a couple of hours just sitting and lying with her to keep her company and to comfort her. We see many nasty things in rescue and while I am torn with each of them; Grace has really made a huge impact on me and I have shed many tears as I have held her. She has no mean bones in her body and just would like to have constant human loving and a canine friend or two to romp with. Her desires are very simple and I hope to fulfill them for her. Her name truly suits her for she handles herself with a poise and grace that I will forever remember. She only had to go under sedation to do the biopsies. Her results should be back within a week and it might prove to be her last week. How utterly tragic.

Amazing Grace was at the vet’s tonight and she will be staying overnight to have a biopsy tomorrow AM. We could not find anything in the fluid/cells that we drew from her lumps under the microscope yet the Vet strongly suspects a very aggressive, highly untreatable fungal infection and he is unsure about the one lump that appears attached to her bone; perhaps a fungal infection that has now imbedded itself into her bone. IF it is in her bone, then her prognosis is very poor. Her coat and skin is also indicative of a very bad and recent flea infestation. She was so friendly and great when we did her exam and cut her nails etc. SHE so badly wanted to play yet she is considered contagious with this fungal problem and just a ‘play’ nibble that pierced the skin of a human or another dog ‘could’ not ‘will’ cause the infection to spread. We liken it to AIDS in that hugs and kisses are not going to spread the infection. If we had pricked ourselves with a Hospital needle that we used on her to draw blood; then yes; we are at ‘possible’ risk of this ‘suspected’ infection. It is not going to mean that we will stop affection, loving and spoiling her. The vet gives her a 50/50% chance of being able to be treated for this and the success of that treatment is even lower. While she is treated, if we even are able to make the decision as the biopsy will determine for sure just what type of lump directly on the bone is and fungal infection she has; she has to be kept under ‘house’ arrest which pains her greatly. She is lonely and very confused and sad. She has bad hygromas and abscesses that have ruptured. Despite everything, she is a lovely girl and I am very saddened to think that she might not make it through. Furthermore, Grace had no issues being in Athena’s presence while we went to the vet’s office yet we could not allow her to play. We will update when we know more.

Amazing Grace ate about 80% of her food today and that is an excellent sign! Her stools are also firm and well formed. She is lonely for she is under ‘house arrest’ as we call it and cannot interact with any of the other animals until we know exactly what she has. She is very loving to Sean and I and we are spending as much time as possible with her. AND she loves her small strawberry or raspberry ice cream treats! She really is a nice, sweet and loving girl and I look forward to getting to know her more. Her paperwork indicates that she is about 4 years old yet we suspect she is much younger. Once she has seen the vet and has had her manicure, pedicure, bath, bw, exam etc.; we will take our own pictures of her as SHE is a stunning girl, just a beauty! She is turning prematurely grey on her muzzle and it adds such a light to her colouring. She is scheduled to see the vets on Tuesday August 16th.

BHRR’s Amazing Grace – Adult, Female Black Great Dane. She was brought in by the Dog Wardens in Ohio as a stray. She is believed to be between 2-4 years old, utd on shots, HW-, fecal normal, microchipped, last known weight was just under 97.6 pounds(August 2005), very thin, unaltered and has had pups in the past. She is also housebroken. She has lumps or even tumours on her legs and the Vet at the shelter in Ohio said they looked to be Cancerous. We have read that she might have allergies and also a cut on her one foot. We were asked to assist this special girl for no one should die alone and if it is determined that she does have Cancer; she will be held in my loving arms when it is her time to go. She has now been pulled from the shelter and we have been told she is very sweet. However, she did have an incident with another female Dane in the home that she was in so we will have to monitor her when she arrives to determine if she does have any aggression issues or she was under ‘stress’. She came to us from Lebanon, Ohio on Sunday August 14th. Her vet appointment has already been scheduled for Tuesday August 16th.