It is with great sadness that I write a memorial to one of our beloved Caucasian Anipals.
Caucasians are Guardian Dogs originally from Russia. They are very large and can look like bears or wolves. They attend to herd animals or act as Guardians to humans.
Zeila Uta came to our Sanctuary a few years ago when she was re-homed from New Mexico. She was a beautiful girl who ran like the wind.
Zeila had been from the beginning very untrusting and afraid from her previous experiences so it was a challenge to earn her trust.
We did earn her trust, however, over the years.
She loved us and we loved her with all our hearts.
Zeila Uta became confident and grew into her own presence with grace and good behavior. She resembled a large grey wolf. She was so much fun to see bounding around sparring with her other Caucasian friends.
To our shock, as she was only 4 1/2 years old, she developed a spinal problem that paralyzed her overnight. She was so brave as she tried to show us she could still come out of her overnight pen using only her front paws to dig in and crawl as she had no feeling in her lower back or hind legs.
We were devastated to see our beautiful, agile girl unable to even stand.
We took her to our local veterinarian where the prognosis wasn’t good. He recommended we take her to an emergency clinic in Denver to see if there was anything that could be done through surgery.
We drove into Denver in silence and sadness as everything started to sink in regarding Zeila Uta’s condition.
The staff at the emergency clinic was so caring as they rolled her in on a triage cart for evaluation.
Zeila Uta wasn’t used to being in public places as she had always been in our rural setting which she loved. We tried to comfort her as best we could and reassure her that she would be all right.
When the emergency room vet came in and we saw her face as she explained that Zeila Uta would never have any quality to her life again due to her spinal paralysis, we knew what that meant.
With great sadness we made the only decision that was in her best interest. She would never have been happy unable to move about and especially running like the wind as she did every day.
Her chances of ever walking were so slim that the vet recommended she be put to sleep.
Our beautiful, big, grey-wolf girl’s Anipal Adventure had abruptly come to an end.
We will always remember her. She will be greatly missed.
She was special and added so much love everyday to our Sanctuary by her beautiful presence.
We will be receiving her ashes in the next few days. We will scatter her ashes on the eastern plains by our home so that she will be free in a place that she loved.
Zeila Uta will not be forgotten…maybe her biggest Adventure ever will have just begun.
