 |
| Furry Hosts.... |
So many of you who have come to Adytum Sanctuary have enjoyed the dogs and cats and in your reviews on Yelp, Trip Advisor and Bed and Breakfast.com have let us know that they added to your adventure at Adytum. We think of ourselves as hosts here to welcome you, and they carry the exact same energy and intention in their own, sweet ways.
 |
| Gizmo's Fort in the Digital Baby Grand Piano...Watching the Rain, Wanting to Play... |
Everyone asks about the stories of how each one of the ‘pack’
came to be here. Many of you know Gabe’s story of being a rescue dog that came
up the hill negotiating thorny Himalayan blackberry vines and enduring stickers
in his paws to escape his private hell in the concentration camp which was his
daily life for God knows how long. The day Gabriel appeared on the porch, our
house staff at the time said, “Kat, there is a mangy dog wetting all over the front porch.
What do I do?” I peeked out. The ugliest dog I have ever seen in my life was
shaking in temperatures that were projected to drop to 8 degrees that February
night. He did have mange and was emaciated. And yes, he marked the front porch
of Adytum as his new home….I just didn’t know it yet.
 |
| Ancient Kitty Boy Covers Alyssa's Chest With His Substantial Girth..Dash Below |
This pitiful animal was digging at his ear groaning, his
head nearly touching the icy ground in his effort to show me he needed help.
Because night was approaching, we had to make that hard decision. Did we want
another dog? No. We had an elderly 12 ½ year old Borzoi, Sasha that was my ‘soul-mate’
of the animal World. Once before I had an Arabian horse aptly called Kismet,
Turkish for “fate”- I called him AJ usually and he too filled that rare slot
that doesn’t come around in life too often: ‘soul-mate’ of the animal World. I
had no desire to replace Sasha and we were actually in that horrible limbo of “do
we put her down or not? There’s still so much life in her but….” We could see
she suffered. Selfishly, we hung on as long as we could but pain began to fill
her large eyes that were always full of pure love that literally arced out us
before. It was getting quite clear, a decision needed to be made.
 |
| Sasha and Kat in Autumn Before Her Passing |
Sasha had been attacked by a huge bear on the back of Adytum
lands – a bear that has since sadly been shot by hunters. His big paw scraped
claw lines down her bony spine damaging her hip. She was never the same since.
The morning’s walk through our tree plantation revealed the hard decision that
would come later the afternoon of the next day. But for today, we had a mangy,
emaciated dog asking desperately for help. I had heard a massive amount of
shooting earlier and guess that someone was driving him purposefully away
because they didn’t want to pay to repair all the damage their neglect had done
to him.
Nameless, yet, Gabriel was asked to enter the garage where
we’d made a bed for him. It was clear he wasn’t going to do it. He apparently
had been confined in a dark place for long time periods because it took months
and months before he would consent to look me in the eye and to enter ‘inside’.
I went to town immediately with nightfall approaching and bought an Igloo and
filled it with warm blankets on the covered part of the porch. We fed him and
started working on his ear- the worst infection I have ever seen actually
protruding out of his ear like a giant black cauliflower.
The next day he was
gone before I could try to coax him into the truck to visit the vet. The vet
ended up coming to us…the next day, my beloved soul of my heart, Sasha was gone
too and I cried so desperately, so hopelessly with my poor vet looking on like
I might need sedation too…It was – well you know beyond humiliating, but who
cares. You’ve done it too.
 |
| Look at the Love Beaming Out of Sasha's Eyes- It Intensified The Older She Grew |
The space left by Sasha was pure emptiness where her bed and
constant loving glances had filled so many years. I had a day to mourn, three
days wearing sunglasses to the optometry office because my eyes were nearly
swollen shut. Then guess who returned the day after her death? Our ugly friend
with his paws full of thorns again. He spent hours patiently licking them to
get them free. Later we learned that he would go up and down the hill and take
food and bones to the rest of his pack. He would even go lay with them on cold
nights, leaving the comforts we provided, because his loyalty ran deeper than
that of most humans and he put everyone ahead of himself..still does.
He healed my heart in time when he began to share his loving
eyes with me, so rich with gratitude and relief to have been accepted and
actually loved. We healed his ear and turned him back into the beautiful
creature he always knew he was... The transformation was miraculous. I wish I
had taken pictures to show you…you would hardly believe it. The nameless,
collarless dog became Gabriel because he is the angel that gave me his healing
love when my heart was breaking…breaking. We gave him safety, protection and a
new life full of all the love he deserves.
It really impressed me too that he created this new life for
himself. Even an animal has the power to choose a better life. Think about
that. Live in the valley below with beatings, confinements, starvation, humiliation
or…move through thorns and obstacles and head straight up the hill to reach a
better Way. My admiration for Gabriel equaled my gratitude that this angel
appeared when I most needed healing.
I had heard a story to prepare me to accept him even though
he did NOT fit the model we wanted to represent Adytum. Graceful Borzoi, yes. Mangy flea ridden
starving mixed breed mut? No. Not really…Love comes in so many different
packages and I am ashamed at that shallow thinking when Adytum was beginning to
open and be presented online to the World…
At the optometry office late one afternoon when I don’t have
time for stories…an old woman said, “My friend had a German Shepherd appear on
her doorstep the day after her husband died. She scared him away even though he
came back again and again. When I asked her why, she said she didn’t have
enough money to pay for dog food. That week she was robbed and lost much of her
possessions. If she had accepted the dog, which seemed to be an angel in
disguise, it probably never would have happened.” The story most definitely
came to mind and regardless of whether Gabriel fit the image we wished to
portray at Adytum, we welcomed him with open arms and gave him his new name. We
left the collar off, however, as we were on to his mission. He made it appear
he was still in residence as part of the pack. He came and went at regular
hours. He always came back…
 |
The vet, the same one here to put Sasha down, treated his
ear over and over actually. He had some other name and she knew this dog. She
suggested we turn the family in because they had 7 dogs all chained and used as
guard dogs. Once, they had spayed him and loved him. I don’t know what
happened. Perhaps they beat them to make the pack mean and starved them to keep
them alert. People in the country sometimes have different ways. From my neck
of the woods, it is called abuse. The only reason we didn’t turn them in was
because Gabriel continued to care for his pack with his trademark intense
loyalty.
We often bought home raw bones from Morton Meat Company. Most
of you know it as having the best beef jerky around…Entering this shop is a
sacrifice for me, being vegetarian, and having to smell the butcher shop but it’s
a sacrifice I gladly make for our dogs. Any gift we gave Gabe went right down
the hill. He shared his treats, rawhide bones, raw bones and his body heat on
frigid nights. Finally the family was evicted or some such event because
Gabriel finally accepted a collar and became ours when they left, leaving only
the paper notice nailed to the front door.
 |
| Beautiful Gabriel in the Snow |
It is with great sadness I have to share with each of you
who have called Gabriel a real angel…felt his love and protection…those single
women at Adytum who found a loving guard stationed outside their door or at the
foot of their bed if they allowed him in…Gabriel has suffered a great loss this
week. Strangely enough, being placed in an eye doctor’s home, Gabriel has lost
his eye to glaucoma. Knowing Gabriel, he will view it as a gift because this
incomprehensible loss is provoking a call to demand a pressure check at the
routine vet visits we all attend. It isn’t the fault of the vet. The standard
is not set for dogs as it for humans to have our pressure checked each year at
our eye exam. Glaucoma progresses silently with no symptoms. It is blinding. Donn’s
year in Africa yielded many such human cases who became blind with little
warning or symptoms. It is VITAL to get an annual eye exam and submit to the
pressure check none of us enjoy. I believe it is VITAL to insist our pets have
the same privilege.
Gabriel never gave any indication anything was wrong. His
persistent ear infections, probably made worse by the beatings he endured
causing structural damage…who knows, they gave way to what appeared to be an
eye infection. Donn feels the rare appearance of glaucoma may have been due to
structural damage in the eye as well from abuse. We treated for 1 ½ weeks for
allergy eyes and finally went to the vet where she diagnosed glaucoma. Watering
eyes that mimic allergy are not a part of glaucoma symptoms but dull, throbbing
pain is and it was clear Gabe didn’t feel good.
We had no way of knowing and he had no way to tell us but to shiver
inside, to lay low, to leave his continually happily thumping tail on the
ground instead of waving it at everyone…We were convinced he had a tough eye
infection and began to use stronger cortico-steroid drops, but nothing resolved
it as it would have in humans…
 |
| No More Working Eye.... |
One day his eye turned blue…The vet referred to an ophthalmologist
and Donn took both dogs to her a few days later. She confirmed that Gabriel’s
precious watchful, loving eye had been lost and suggested removing it, sewing
up the lid and treating the other preventatively for glaucoma. Glaucoma is rare
in this breed. She said it was the fault of no one…there was absolutely no way
to know.
 |
| Look At Dash's Smile on His First Real Hike |
We took Dash, the Cavalier King
Charles Spaniel, to the same doctor because that breed is known to have
blindness issues. Amazingly no pressure check was done- even though we were
seeing a specialist. So really, with all due respect with the tremendous
training and knowledge these professionals have, as well as tremendous
graciousness toward we humans while they are lovingly putting our old pets
down- there really WAS a way to know before the eye was lost and that is by a
routine pressure check just like we do at our annual eye exam.
 |
| Our Morton Office- Donn's Optometry and my Nutritional Therapy Practice |
Again, I cannot place blame on a discipline that has yet to
recognize the need to prevent glaucoma by annual pressure checks. There are
those skilled in fighting for animal rights and I ask you, beg you, to get the
word out that the standard needs to be changed. Gabriel lost an eye needlessly.
I am sickened by it as are others that have come to learn of his private,
needless tragedy.
In this day and age with all our prevention, all those
vaccinations for dogs and heart worm medicine and on and on…why in the world
did no one factor in the extreme value of sight and make a test mandatory for
it?
We have an option for surgery which is obviously very expensive
and there is a 15% chance that the pressure in the dead eye will not go down
and it will have to come out anyway. At a friend’s insistence and horror at
Gabriel losing his eye, I emailed Bill Sardi who is a famous researcher on the
eye and is the man responsible for our human clinical trial at Medical Vision
Center (www.medicalvisioncenter.com)
on red wine extract – the Longevinex brand in particular (www.longevinex.com) for the treatment of
blinding macular degeneration both wet and dry forms. I asked Bill if he had
options.
 |
| Bill Sardi Lecturing at the Roxy on Longevinex for Macular Degeneration |
We use Hyaluronic Acid in our dispensary for those glaucoma
patients who opt out of the standard medical treatment and want to try a
natural product. Glaucoma drops are about $80 a month. HA is $78 – the good
brands that are pharmaceutical grade. HA also helps joints and makes our skin
like baby’s skin…nice and plump diminishing wrinkles and fine lines. HA makes
up the eyeball and provides structure for it. So many are deficient in HA in
their eyes. We have actually had a measure of success with those few patients
lowering their pressure and maintaining normal pressure by using HA. So that’s exactly what Bill suggested and we
are now using oral HA and topical glaucoma drops twice daily to see if we can
alleviate his pain by lowering pressure in the dead eye staving off surgery and
saving the eye, albeit a dead eye.
 |
| Kat and Gabe Near Adytum Sanctuary |
Gabriel is always thinking of others. When you’re here, he’s
thinking of you and watching out for you. He will show you the trails, sleep
outside your door to protect you from dangers that never come…if you’re a furry
friend he will share his food and his treats with you…even his precious body
heat on cold nights. This time Gabriel has given a very priceless gift: he is
asking that awareness be raised that animals need preventive care that includes
pressure checks to prevent or detect glaucoma. He can’t speak but for those who
have been in his care, he trusts you will speak for him and his friends, and I
trust you will too. When you take your animals to the vet, pay whatever they
need to receive to perform the simple touching of the Tono-pen to the cornea to
register pressure in the eye. Suggest, please that they include this as a part
of their annual exam. Nothing is wasted now, is it? Meantime, we will do our
best to save the eye instead of the unthinkable option…Meantime, will you please consider sharing some or all of this post with your vet, with your contact list? And pray for him too, will you?
