Tsavo

TSAVO The Husky

09-03-2015 to 01-11-2019

Rest in peace our friend

Tsavo was our amazing adventure buddy. We climbed mountains, shared tents and hotels and travelled everywhere together. He was cheeky and funny and so generous and gentle. He also loved modelling and would often ask to join in on shoots. If he was running on his favourite beach, he would often spot someone with a camera and stop to pose for them. He was very much a people dog and loved everyone he met. Being such a beautiful husky, he drew attention wherever he went and he always took time to make sure everyone who wanted to say hello got a chance to pet him and a kiss. With children and small dogs, he was the most gentle: many times we have had small children he had never met before run up and throw their arms around him, as their parents looked on in terror, only to see him sit there and let them hug with a huge smile on his face. He had a special relationship with our granddaughter Athena. She was born over nine weeks premature at only 2lb 7oz and spent the first 8 weeks of her life in an incubator. Tsavo fell in love with her and the pair of them were inseparable, getting up to mischief together whenever she visited. If Athena was around, he never left her side.

Unfortunately, Tsavo also had severe medical problems. A tick bite when he was just ten weeks old caused an infection that affected his brain and at 7 months old he began having seizures. As he grew up, the seizures became more frequent and more severe, so he had to have strong medication to reduce the seizure activity. Finding a balance that worked became increasingly difficult and he went through a few very difficult periods of several months when the seizures came every few days.

Trying to find a cocktail of medicines that would help him lead a normal life was always going to be a balancing act, as the risk of side effects was very high but to see his love for life and the people and dogs in his life when he had respite made it worth all the struggles. Eventually one of the side effects that we were worried about came to be: he suffered a severe bout of acute pancreatitis, which left his potassium levels so low that they did not register on the blood test - technically he should have already died! Miraculously, he pulled through with a lot of care from his amazing vets and to celebrate his recovery, just a month after being technically dead, we climbed Ben Nevis together.

Not once did he ever complain about his discomfort, in fact he took it in his stride and was determined to enjoy his life and the people and animals that shared his world. Even a few weeks before he passed, when he must already have been in a lot of pain, he took great delight in letting Athena climb all over him, even encouraging her to continue.

Eventually, the pressure on his system became too much and when the end came it was very quick. We had just been commenting a few days earlier on how well he was doing: he had not had any seizure activity for a month and had been full of life and joy. Two days later, he was running and playing with his father, Solomon in the park but a few hours afterwards, he became weak and refused to eat. He then vomited a few times overnight and we took him to the vet in the morning. All the signs looked like a return of the pancreatitis but it seemed like we had caught it earlier. He was given antibiotics and a steroid and we spent the night giving him electrolytes every hour and a half by syringe. By morning he had deteriorated further and we took him back to the vet. The vet took his temperature and looked worried: he said it was slightly high but not as high as he would expect from an infection that could floor him, he said this did not look good. They took him in and put him on a fluid drip and asked us to call after four hours. When we called back it was the worst news. Blood tests showed that his liver and kidneys were shutting down and when we asked how long he would have, we were asked if we could get there in two hours.

Tsavo passed away in our arms with a gentle sigh as the anaesthetic went in at 5.40pm on November 1st 2019. He had lived a full and happy life despite his many problems and it is his spirit and optimism that will carry us through the dark days ahead as we try to come to terms with life without him.

We know that Tsavo had made many great friends in the Purpleport community and would love to read some of your favourite memories of him if you could post them here.

Peace and love, Howard and Karen