Most of you who know us, know that our dog, Sasa (a Vizsla), is a very important member of our family.
I bought her from a breeder when I lived downtown Chicago with my sister, Anne.
Sasa will always be my first "baby"...she was with me when I dated Michael and then married him; she was with us through the births of our three incredible children; and she was with us when Ella was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
She's still with us now.
She's been with us through the ups and downs of life, and has remained the most amazingly loyal, loving and playful dog that I ever could have imagined owning.
We always knew that we wanted to get another Vizsla puppy before Sasa's time with us ended. We wanted to have "overlap" time between the two dogs (and we've been told by many people, including Sasa's vet, that this would be beneficial not only for us, but also for Sasa and the new puppy). So our plan was to get a male Vizsla puppy next summer (2017).
Sasa is almost 12 years old. While she still seems like a puppy in our eyes, she's started randomly falling over during the past month.
I took her to the vet last week (luckily we had a video of one of Sasa's "falling" episodes to show her) and after a few tests, the vet immediately recognized that Sasa has a heart condition. We don't know what the exact problem is (we could find out by doing many costly tests...we're choosing not to), but regardless of what it is, it's not something that can be fixed.
The vet told us that it will eventually lead to cardiac arrest. She's guessing that Sasa has anywhere from 6 to 12 months (give or take) before this happens.
We are heartbroken at this news. We can't imagine life without our Sasa.
We quickly realized that if we wait until next summer to get the new puppy, there's a good chance that Sasa might not still be with us.
But wait-lists for Vizslas are typically months long.
However, I decided to take a chance...
I called the "Vizsla Guru" (a well-known breeder near Rockford, Illinois) and he told me of a good friend of his in Wisconsin who has a new litter of Vizsla puppies and might have a few males still available.
I was able to get in contact with the Wisconsin breeder and out of his litter of seven puppies born in May (six males and one female), he still has three males available for purchase!
Michael and I knew what we needed to do...
We almost immediately sent him our deposit to guarantee us one of the puppies (available to come home in early July)!!!
We are so thankful that this is working out. We've been told that having an older dog around when you bring home a new puppy can help the puppy learn its rank in the house and can also help bring some youthfulness back to the older dog. And when Sasa's time with us does come to an end, we'll have our other dog that we love to help us through the grieving process.
Hopefully Sasa still has a lot of time left with us...she hasn't had a falling episode in over a week and she's still her loving, happy self :)
Here are some pictures of our Sasa as well as the puppies in the new litter:
I bought her from a breeder when I lived downtown Chicago with my sister, Anne.
Sasa will always be my first "baby"...she was with me when I dated Michael and then married him; she was with us through the births of our three incredible children; and she was with us when Ella was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
She's still with us now.
She's been with us through the ups and downs of life, and has remained the most amazingly loyal, loving and playful dog that I ever could have imagined owning.
We always knew that we wanted to get another Vizsla puppy before Sasa's time with us ended. We wanted to have "overlap" time between the two dogs (and we've been told by many people, including Sasa's vet, that this would be beneficial not only for us, but also for Sasa and the new puppy). So our plan was to get a male Vizsla puppy next summer (2017).
Sasa is almost 12 years old. While she still seems like a puppy in our eyes, she's started randomly falling over during the past month.
I took her to the vet last week (luckily we had a video of one of Sasa's "falling" episodes to show her) and after a few tests, the vet immediately recognized that Sasa has a heart condition. We don't know what the exact problem is (we could find out by doing many costly tests...we're choosing not to), but regardless of what it is, it's not something that can be fixed.
The vet told us that it will eventually lead to cardiac arrest. She's guessing that Sasa has anywhere from 6 to 12 months (give or take) before this happens.
We are heartbroken at this news. We can't imagine life without our Sasa.
We quickly realized that if we wait until next summer to get the new puppy, there's a good chance that Sasa might not still be with us.
But wait-lists for Vizslas are typically months long.
However, I decided to take a chance...
I called the "Vizsla Guru" (a well-known breeder near Rockford, Illinois) and he told me of a good friend of his in Wisconsin who has a new litter of Vizsla puppies and might have a few males still available.
I was able to get in contact with the Wisconsin breeder and out of his litter of seven puppies born in May (six males and one female), he still has three males available for purchase!
Michael and I knew what we needed to do...
We almost immediately sent him our deposit to guarantee us one of the puppies (available to come home in early July)!!!
We are so thankful that this is working out. We've been told that having an older dog around when you bring home a new puppy can help the puppy learn its rank in the house and can also help bring some youthfulness back to the older dog. And when Sasa's time with us does come to an end, we'll have our other dog that we love to help us through the grieving process.
Hopefully Sasa still has a lot of time left with us...she hasn't had a falling episode in over a week and she's still her loving, happy self :)
Here are some pictures of our Sasa as well as the puppies in the new litter:
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| When I first brought Sasa home (she was 8 months old) |
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| One of our favorite Sasa pictures (taken by my mom, Barb Gibson) |
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Our "Old Lady"
(picture taken this past weekend by our neighbor/friend, Michael Minella) https://www.facebook.com/michaelminellaphotography/
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The following are pictures of the puppies in the new litter (we don't yet know which puppy will be ours until we pick him out in person). The breeder will be emailing us photo updates every week until we pick up our puppy in July (the puppies are currently 4 weeks old).
