Bonnie and Satan’s Story

Bonnie and Satan were as close as two dogs could ever get.  I feel their story has to be told as one also.

We got Bonnie as a young pup.  It wasn’t too long after that we lost Dusty to old age and Bambi disappeared.  Bonnie was our only dog at the time and seemed to miss the companionship of Dusty.  Bonnie was already a couple years old when we brought Satan home.  Bonnie began to show motherly instincts toward Satan that we never knew existed in her.  Bonnie and Satan became inseparable.

Satan grew up to be a very large Doberman. We had a five-foot chain link fence that he could easily stand up and look over the top of. Just because he was big didn’t mean he was vicious.  He was actually the biggest baby I ever saw.  He craved constant attention of his family and also of Bonnie.

I thought Bonnie and Satan would some day give us their offspring to care for.  However, it didn’t happen.  We never tried to prevent it because we knew they would be awesome parents and we wanted another puppy because of their wonderful dispositions, but Bonnie was almost six years old and probably too old to have a first litter.  Then one day, completely unexpected, it happened.  We thought Bonnie was just getting a little fat, but that wasn’t it.   Because she was also acting under the weather, we took her to the vet during her last week of pregnancy.  It was then that we found out we were about to experience a “blessed event”.  We also had some bad news.  In the early 80’s heartworm was just making its debut in the northern United States.  Heartworm preventive medicine was just becoming available, but very few dogs were actually taking it.  Bonnie was diagnosed with active Heartworm disease.  It would be passed on to her puppies.

I still couldn’t believe she was expecting.  I heard my then 11-year-old daughter’s voice in the background saying, “I helped”.  I didn’t even want to guess what that meant.

Bonnie had only three live pups and seven that were stillborn.  We are not sure if it was Bonnie’s age or the heartworm that caused the deaths of most of the pups.  Maybe it was both.   Bonnie’s heartworm condition couldn’t be treated until the pups were weaned.  She was getting very weak and couldn’t really care for her puppies other than to nurse them.  To our amazement and the amazement of our vet, Satan stepped right in and took over.  He stayed with Bonnie all the time.  She nursed the puppies and he did everything else.  He washed them and picked up after them and taught them the rules of “doggie life”.  He became the perfect father.  We had to keep a long T-shirt on him so the puppies wouldn’t try to nurse.  Needless to say, imprinted on the T-shirt was “The World’s Best Dad”.

The puppies flourished and the heartworm they were born with disappeared since it wasn’t active heartworm disease.  Bonnie was finally able to receive treatment for her condition, which consisted of doses of arsenic to kill off the worms.  She finally tested negative for the disease but it had already taken its toll.  She never completely recovered from this deadly disease and became nothing but skin and bones.   The following year we had to let her go so she wouldn’t suffer anymore.  Since this time our dogs have always received their monthly heartworm medication.

Satan began to develop severe arthritis in his later years.  Medication helped at first but it continued to worsen.  When it reached the point that he could no longer stand up by himself, we knew that, now at the age of 9, we had to let him reunite with Bonnie at the Rainbow Bridge.

As for their pups, two of them went to very good homes.  The third one was named Samantha who remained with us from her birth in 1983 until 1989.

CLICK BELOW FOR SAMANTHA’S STORY