Jazmine wasn’t a LEARN alum, but her brother Jack was and so is Gunnar and through Jack I began to volunteer – so Jazmine became a part of the LEARN family too. After all, she put up with those young whipper-snapper foster dogs we took in.

Jazmine passed away on 5/7/10 after allowing me to be her Mom for 13 years. She passed from a bad case of pneumonia that she couldn’t fight off because of the diabetes she came down with the previous December. Jazmine was around b

efore I met my husband and after he came along, she graciously gave him her spot in my bed and adopted him for her Dad.

Being known for her gentle and skittish nature she was allowed at my work. She followed me around and when she couldn’t find me, she would race around the building looking for me – it got so the other employees would call for me so Jazmine could find me. She learned how to dig a ball out from under a pallet, swatted the Giggly Wiggly ball around on the concrete, and in general sat patiently waiting at every break and lunch for her ‘dues’ in being the company dog. Everyone would ask where she was whenever she wasn’t there with me and she would get horribly depressed when she had to be left at home.

As spoiled as Jazmine was, she gave back to me tenfold. I can’t tell you how many times she comforted me over the years or made me laugh in her enthusiasm. My father said he never saw a dog so quick on her feet, that he didn’t even want to be in the state when she passed, and he knew that if I died first Jazmine would follow me a week later. Barton loved to make her dance when trying to catch her paws – he said she was the “fastest ‘slinger in the west”.

As Jazmine got into her golden years the hip displaysia came on, pickiness about her food, she tore her ACL when she was 10, and the arthritis was hard to watch sometimes. Over the last year and a half it was a regular occurrence to lift her back end while the front end walked up the stairs. When she was determined to be with you, nothing you could say would make her wait until you got there to help her. The pneumonia came on so fast and hard that none of us really got a breath. The end of March Jazmine weighed 69lbs., when she started getting really picky with her food again I didn’t think anything of it but we were sure working at enticing her. I finally took her in when she started having accidents again and threw up for no reason or warning. The verdict came in of pneumonia and nothing we could have done would have prevented it. In 13 years she never had a UTI either, but now she had one on top of it all and scariest of all she had dropped 15 lbs. I took her home that night and Barton and I anxiously awaited the news on her blood panel. I wasn’t expecting for the news to actually be decent, I was expecting that her kidneys and liver would be failing her also, but when the results were negative we had a chance to save her. She was put on the best and strongest antibiotic the vet had at the initial visit on a Monday, she was put on IV fluids on Wednesday where I found she had dropped another couple of pounds. By the end of the week she was struggling to breathe and we knew the antibiotics weren’t working. We didn’t want her to continue to suffer and struggle, so we did the best thing for her.

The house doesn’t feel “right” with her gone, I miss my “pooh bear.” Jazmine, you will never be forgotten. I know you are now in a better place, your hips are fine, no arthritis, no more needles, no more struggling with stairs, and you have Jack to show you the ropes and play tug-o-war with until I arrive. No other dog will take your place.