Tribute To Sully

Dear family and friends,

 Dear family and friends,

We lost a good friend and family member yesterday. Sully,
our beloved Greyhound, had to be euthanized while he was
being evaluated at the Michigan State University Veterinary
Teaching School in Lansing, MI.

Sully just turned 7 years old on March 26, 2008.
We rescued him on May 22, 2006, so he gave us lots
of love, joy and comfort for almost two years.

His problem started on March 20th when he
slipped and fell down the stairs to the family room.
He seemed okay at first, but started to limp.
He wasn't getting any better, so we took him to his
vet to be evaluated. The radiology reports indicated
a mass in his left rear leg. The vet suspected
that it was osteosarcoma and set up an appointment
for us in Lansing at MSU for Wednesday, April 3rd.

After the staff had examined Sully, taken X-Rays,
blood work, etc., the attending vet recommended we
stay overnight to await the cytology reports.
On the way to the motel Cookie took a call from
Dr. Fitzpatrick saying that Sully had fallen and
broken his left rear leg and asked that we return
right away. When we arrived, Dr. Fitzpatrick told us
we had to make a decision right now.

 He explained that Sully's leg was so brittle,
that when the assistant had taken
Sully out to do his "business," Sully fell and fractured
the leg. Our options were to have the leg amputated
right away or have him euthanized - all this before we
had even received the cytology reports. Sully had been
given morphine ashe was in so much pain.

When the vet assistants wheeled Sully into
the exam room,he was awake but awfully groggy from the
morphine. Dr. Fitzpatrick showed us the X-Ray of Sully's leg
and it was fractured so severely, there was no way
to cast it. The fracture was the leg that had
the "suspected" osteosarcoma, even after amputation,
the projected survival would be not more
than 3-4 months. That is when we decided
to have him euthanized because as a sporting dog,
Sully would have had quality of life issues.
Not only that, he would have had
considerable difficulty negotiating the stairs
in our tri-level home.

Dr. Fitzpatrick asked if we wanted to be alone
with Sully for a few minutes.
 Naturally, we said, "Yes!" After
talking to Sully, we had a strong sense that he
recognized our voices as he
raised his sweet little head as
if to say, "Thanks for being here for me, Mom & Dad."
We told him that we loved him, enjoyed all
the unconditional love he had given us since
we rescued him. So we said our last farewell,
and kissed him goodbye.

Then Dr. Fitzpatrick came in and I said, "It is time."
 Sully was gone in just a few seconds.

Sully was so sweet, loving, and gentle - even
with other animals.

We were blessed to have him in our care.

He was truly a gift from God.

We miss him so much. It seems as though
 a piece of our hearts was taken away from us.

Some of you didn't even know Sully, but had you
known him as we did, you would have loved him,
too. Some will say, "He was just a dog." But he
wasn't "just a dog" -he was a dear member of our family,
 and who wanted for nothing, as we cared so
deeply for our Sully.

And Sully loved us as much as we loved him.
 
Thanks to all of you who have read this far. It eases
our pain to put our thoughts on paper, so we appreciate
you reading this.

Love to all of you,
Don & Cookie

P.S. Thanks to Lucas Martino, our grandson, for being
there with us. We appreciate all your support and
help Luke!