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Teddy was an inspiration to the volunteers. Teddy had the most severe case of inflammatory bowel disease, after Penelope died of complications of IBD in May.  All of Teddy's brothers (Otis, Dart, Bigman, Oliver, Tim) and his sister Emily had IBD, but Teddy suffered from it the worst. We pulled him from the kennel on the first of May, when he went into a steep decline  We all thought he was terminal and had no hope when we dropped him off at the Vet Med Teaching Hospital that evening.

Ted had many surprises for us.  He did not die on May 1^st  and was taken into the loving care of Juliana Sorem, then a 3^rd year veterinary student at UCD.  When she could no longer care for him, when she stared her grueling 4^th year, Ted went to spend the rest of his days at Cathy Toft's critical care unit and hospice (aka her house!).

Ted teetered on the brink of death a number of times, but he always pulled back and seemed to improve.  Each time we prepared to give Teddy a humane departure from this world, he seemed to know what we were thinking and he improved dramatically, maybe because of some hopeful new idea we had each time about how to support his failing body.    We knew he was on the mend because of the "Ted-o-meter" ...the squeaking of one of Teddy's set of beloved squeaky toys.  Ted always had a toy in his mouth.  He carried one wherever he went, when he was feeling well enough.  When he was really happy, his toy would squeak and squeak. 

Because of Teddy's many hopeful rebounds from the precipice, and because his ravaged body was a skeleton draped with dog hair, the volunteers lovingly dubbed him "Ted Man Walking".   (Ok, yes, like a lot of emergency workers, the volunteers indulged in black humor).  Why did we allow him to live as long as he did and die on  his own?  Part of the answer was how happy Teddy was all the time. Sure, he obviously didn't feel great, but he never lost his joy of life.  He loved a good meal of clams, salmon, steak, beef liver, or whatever delicacy his foster moms used to entice his failing appetite.  When we got home, his entire thin body somehow wagged along with his tail. He would run and get the nearest squeaky toy and hail our return.   Each morning, including the morning of the day he died, Teddy would start barking for joy when he heard his foster mom wake up. He would run into the kitchen, pushing every other dog aside and demand his breakfast.  It was impossible to kill an animal who was obviously enjoying life so much..

Teddy in the kennel in April, a month before his health required him to live in a foster home.

Teddy in his second foster home, a few days before he died.

So Teddy became an inspiration to the volunteers.  The 15+ months that the volunteers put in collectively 65+ hour weeks were very tiring for all of us, but... how could we complain when Teddy kept such an upbeat attitude in the face of impending death and a body that inflicted much pain and suffering on him?  If Teddy was not going to give up, how could we?  How could we even complain?  What would happen to Teddy if we gave up?  So we kept on keeping on. 

On the morning of the day Teddy died, he was as happy as ever. I will not ever forget his excited barking when he heard me get out of bed that morning.  I remember thinking that he was feeling so good that day, surely he had many more days left.  He pushed his way into the kitchen and wolfed down a bowl of freshly cooked beef liver.  I was a bit concerned that he hadn't been carrying his squeaky toy around for the past few days.  His skin and all visible tissues had been an ominous yellow for several weeks.  The enormous foreboding hematoma on his belly had actually disappeared but that yellow color was not going away.  I knew it couldn't be good, but there was Teddy, acting like he always did--sleeping at my feet while I worked at the computer, following me around the house asking for pets.  He ran and barked every time the other dogs initiated a game.  He took his late morning nap. He went outside to enjoy the mild winter air.  Then early in the afternoon, his body gave up.  He went into shock and was dead within minutes.  He died peacefully at home with those who loved him. 

A musical tribute to Teddy:

Teddy's spirit left this world on December, 21, 2005, the Winter Solstice.  As a collie, Teddy showed the heart and spirit of his ancient Celtic heritage.  It seems fitting that his passing happened on the day that the Celts celebrate the renewal of life by bringing a live evergreen into the house on the longest night of the year and decorating it with lights.  Teddy died at around 2 pm in the afternoon, on a sunny, mild winter day, the shortest day of the year, when the midday light had a soft, magical glow. 

This song was playing on the day that Teddy died,  You can play a sample of it here to remember him [1 MB mp3]:

Sior-Uaine (Evergreen)

Phil Cunningham

"Even in the depths of winter, when all around is white with snow the native pines of Scotland near my house in Glen Atttic are....Sior-Uaine..."

[From Celtic Christmas IV, A Windham Sampler]