When we moved to our house in Canyon Country, we had more room, inside
and out,
and it
seemed like a good idea to get another St. Bernard puppy. We bought one from a
breeder, and named him Augustus, to continue the Roman tradition, and called him
Gus. Unfortunately, we found out very soon that the beautiful little dog had hip
dysplasia. We contacted the breeder but they weren’t willing to do anything
about it—you take your chances when you buy an animal. He was a sweet little
dog, but Caesar didn’t like him much, or maybe liked him too much. Gus’s back
was always soaking wet with Caesar’s slobber, because Caesar wouldn’t leave him
alone. I do have adorable pictures of the two of them together, and one of our
favorite family Christmas pictures has both Caesar and Gus in it.
If Gus had lived a few more
years, his hip dysplasia would have crippled him. But that
wasn’t to be his biggest
problem. When Gus was about eight months old he had his
first seizure, which was scary. He came out of it quickly, and I took him to the
vet, who said it might be epilepsy. The vet put him on medication, which helped
for a while, until one day he had a terrible seizure. He was bent over
backwards, and it just seemed to go on and on. He finally came out of it, but
was shuddering, and Mac managed to get him wrapped in towels and took him to the
vet. The vet kept him there, but called the next day and said Gus had gone into
another seizure and he couldn’t get him to come out of it. We had to have him
put to sleep.
