It has been more than a year since I last wrote about Sage. That was also in February, when his mother, the role model for pup Moms everywhere, Jackie Pool, passed away on a cold Sunday. 51 weeks later, Sage was reunited with his mother at Rainbow Bridge.
I know many of you hold fond memories of Miss Jackie. For those of you who didn’t know her I am sorry, because she was one grand lady, and she fought when her babies became sick, she fought with every ounce of will she had.
Sage lived, through medicine, prayers, good thoughts, and his mother’s will Sage went from barely being able to draw breathe to eating, and acting like his lively self. His white blood cell count was down. Soon he picked up an infection and the medicine kicked his butt. There was a rocky mountain tick fever scare. His red blood count plummeted again and his liver and kidney functions were growing worse. And yet through that mother and child connection Sage survived..
Sage never beat his health issues, his red count bounced up and down, his arthritis bothered him, he had to spend time crated that he did not like. As he said it’s not fun getting old. The last post Sage made through his Mom was this: “Every single reading was in normal range!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Looks like I'm finally in the clear!!"”
Then the unthinkable happened. Sage told us his mother had spots on her lungs. Two months later she was gone, leaving her friends in the dog world devastated. The hospital had arranged for Sage and Saffron to visit with her in the hospital the day before she passed, so Sage never got to say goodbye to his Mom.
In October our good friends Clementine and the Girls, who had stayed in contact with Safron and Sage. told us that Sage had another blood test and this did show Rocky Mountain Fever and Erlichiosis. He began to lose control of his bladder, which he had never done before. The effects of aging were beginning to show on our friend, and while his human sister and Dad took good care of him, we all knew Miss Jackie was calling him home.
On February 2, 2012 he went home. Because I can not do a better job of it, and because it is exactly how it happened, I am going to use the words of Fella, Hattie Mae’s brother, to set the scene:
“Last evening, as the sun was beginning to set, Sage went out with his Dad for his evening stroll. Because his health has been declining, he walked slowly taking in the smells, feeling the wet grass beneath his paws in the field he loved so much. Suddenly he lifted his head. He saw something, he paused, and then as though a spark of his youthful, healthy days had struck him, he began to run. He saw his Mom. Her arms were stretched out calling his name. His tail wagging, ears flapping and eyes sparkling with joy, he fell into her arms. Jackie scooped Sage up into her arms and carried him to the Bridge.”
It was a mother and child reunion, now both whole, neither sick or in pain, in a better place, a place we shall all be together one day. When hope sags, when you don’t think you will see a loved again, think of Sage, think of why this tired, sick, old dog rain. What one thing would make Sage run?
And believe.
