Pascal

The Friday before Easter Pascal was found in a park with a tennis ball in his mouth but no owner or collar. Our friends fostered him for a week and a half. They gave him love and attention, a nice bath, flea treatment etc.... Our friends already have several chickens, 2 cats and a rabbit, so they asked us if we wanted him. We got him on Saturday, April 14th and he has made his way into our hearts. Since we did not know his history we all tried to guess. We all thought (we, meaning neighbors, friends, a dog trainer, our family) he was between the age of 3-5 years. Labs typically live for 12 years.

Well, he went to the vet yesterday and were shocked to find out that he is almost 9 years old! He had a microchip, but he was never registered. After some investigating we did find out who his owners were during his last check up in 2005. We looked them up and tried contacting the couple. It appears that the man lives on a sailboat somewhere and the woman sings folk songs in Oklahoma. What happened from 2005 to the present is a mystery. We never actually got to speak with the previous owners. This was kind of a bummer to find out because it means our time is shortened with him. On top of that he came back positive for heart worms. The treatment is very costly and could in itself injure him and possibly cause death. So, we will put him on the preventative treatment route, which kills the babies and hopefully the adult ones will die out. We love him dearly and hope to make this time a comfortable time for him.

One thing that is neat is that his name is Pascal. My friend that fostered him went to look for a baby name book to name him but instead picked up a book by one of her favorite authors. The page that she turned to was talking about a dog named Pascal. So there it was- his name. Then we found out that Pascal is latin for Easter. This was so appropriate with his beng found the Friday before Easter. I was not totally sold on the name, but then when we were watching a movie the Saturday afternoon that we got him I happened to look up and see that the director of the movie was named Pascal. Last night as I was thinking all of the information over I thought that it was interesting that his name is Pascal, which means Easter and the resurrection. Leila brought this up this morning as well. I have always said that pets are a good way for kids to learn how to cope with death, I just was not expecting for us to have to learn about this so soon.

We sure love him and he has made his way right into all of our hearts in these last couple of weeks and hope to be able to continue to enjoy him.