Rainbow Bridge Memorial

Dearly missed by the Boersema Family – Jeff, Vicki, Amandalyn and Kaelyn

Brazo Megaman was born on Dec. 1, 1998. His ear tattoos are 128D / 78164 and his GPI Tag# 03426. Fate (with the help of Cathy Munro, bless her heart!) brought Megaman to us as he was returned a few times before coming to his forever home with us. Cathy Munro was Mega’s foster mom, whom he loved dearly. In fact, every time Mega would see Cathy after we adopted him, he would jump up on her to say hello (which he usually only jumped on us). Cathy had remembered that Jeff had asked some questions about Megaman before the last time he was adopted. So when he was returned and became available again, Cathy sent me an e-mail. I’ll never forget it, I was in Phoenix at a week long meeting, and I received an e-mail from Cathy with the subject “Another Greyhound?”. She sent me this e-mail telling us how wonderful Megaman was and said that she would be at the Petco at Alderwood on Saturday, 2/2/02, with Megaman if we were interested in meeting him. We brought our daughters (then 3 and almost 2 years old) and Scuffle (our other GH) with us to meet Megaman that Saturday. Oh, did I mention that I had also brought with me the money order too??? Yes, to my hubby’s surprise, I had already obtained the Money Order with high hopes.

He came home with us on 2/2/02 (a greyt date for a “gotcha day”) and filled our life with lots of laughter, happiness and love.

He settled into our home so well and loved being a part of our family, as much as we loved having him as a part of our family. Megaman filled our hearts and lives with so much love, that we will always remember him and he will always be a part of us. We will always remember the “Silly-Mega” moments, like playing with the stuffed animals (that used to be the girls’ stuffed Simba and Nala but then became the dog’s play stuffies), he was always there to do his “down” for treats… with his signature right front leg bent beneath him during the down, he was always right in front of us while we are putting our shoes on to leave (hoping that he will get to go too), his very special kisses on our chins, his white tipped tail curled up and wagging, him sleeping on the bed with us… and if he was taking all of the bed before we got in, (or if we tried to make the bed when he was laying on it)… we would say, “move Mega” and he would do this really quick shift from one position to another…without really moving that much, and then he would think “ok that’s all I’m moving!”. We usually worked around Mega when we got into bed. :o) He loved going camping and on the ride over, he would climb all the way up top, to the big queen size bed, for the drive “in style”. He loved to run in the yard and then cool off by standing in the pond and drink it’s water. Just last week on Father’s Day, we had a house full and he enjoyed being outside with all of us, playing in the yard as much as he could with his leg hurting, and enjoying everyone’s company and the attention we all gave him.

It was about 2 weeks ago now that he first started to limp. It started after a run in the yard, so we thought it was a torn muscle or something as a result of running. It seems like yesterday that our vet thought the x-ray’s showed bone cancer. Then the following events all went so fast. There were so many options, but we wanted to be sure what it was so that we could treat it correctly. Just recently another GH had an x-ray that they thought was bone cancer, but after biopsy it was something else, so we had our hopes up that it would be the same scenario with Megaman. The biopsy came back positive for bone cancer. My next decision was to do the full body x-ray to see if it had spread into the lungs or elsewhere because if it had not spread, then I was willing to try an aggressive treatment of the cancer (amputation/chemo) for Megaman. We did the full body x-rays on Sat., the results are due back today. On Saturday, we weighed Mega at the vet and he had lost 7 lbs. in 5 days. I had bought good quality, high protein, canned food for him, but he really had no appetite. We tried people food, everything and we just couldn’t get him to eat. Then on Sunday, he was whining. I couldn’t get him to take his pain med., but my hubby did finally get him to lick some peanut butter from his fingers that had the medication in it. We had hoped that it would help the pain. But the pain got worse, hour by hour, and his crying & his eyes were telling us that it was time. We couldn’t believe how quickly he was getting worse. I didn’t want my daughters (ages 4 & 5) to see this, so I told them to say good-bye to our Mega and then brought them to my mom’s and I came home. It was a very difficult decision for us. I so wished that I could somehow just make him all better and healthy again, playing the “what if?” mind games. We had to look at it as if he  ere someone else’s dog and what we would recommend… we knew what the answer was. Mega was also telling us in both his cries & eyes that there was only one thing to do and that was to help him to the Rainbow Bridge. I feel guilty that we couldn’t get the vet’s office sooner than we did, but everything happened so shockingly fast. I sat in the back with Megaman on the ride over and stroked him and talked to him until we got there and then both Jeff and I were there for him, telling him that we loved him and that he was a good boy right until the end, and afterwards. He is finally at peace… running at the Rainbow Bridge, pain free, with his brother Buffalo (Chuck Totten’s GH) and all the others that have gone before him.

Megaman has touched our lives, and so many other lives, so deeply. He will always & forever be in our hearts.

Megaman went to the Rainbow Bridge on June 27, 2004.

God Bless you Megaman. You are an Angel, now watching over us. We love you
Mega!

Hugs to your Hounds,

Jeff, Vicki, Amandalyn & Kaelyn Boersema
Scuffle & Megaman, our Angel