Farewell Zeus

Today is a sad day, my Great Pyrenees LGD Zeus had to be put down.  As a LGD there wasn't any better, at 6 years old he still had a number of good years left in him.  I thought he may have been poisoned but the vet thought he probably had gotten a tick fever.

Zeus was the kind of Pyr that didn't want to be fooled with, he had a job to do and wanted to be left to it.  Now don't get me wrong, Zeus loved to be pet and liked his people, but don't think about fooling around with him.  Once a year we would wrestle a muzzle on him long enough to sedate him, shear, vaccinate and vet him.  That's about all you got, he delt with his own fighting injuries and coyote run ins.

We have a 25 acre conservation lake on the property and allow a few people to fish on it.  When someone strange would be on the lake fishing, Zeus would sit on the dam an watch them the whole time, never barking or aggressive, just watching.  He would also follow any children around that happened to be on the property.  You could tell by the look in his eye that he felt babysitting was beneath him but by gosh those kids wern't going to get in trouble or hurt on his watch!  In his 6 years we never once lost a cria or a calf to coyotes.

Due to the excessive rain this year, it has been a bumper crop for ticks and bugs.  The vet thought he had probably layed down in the pasture near a tick hatch and within a few days he was overcome.  Within 4 days he had become lethargic, weak and staggering.  In 20 years I've never had this happen to a dog.  So Zeus now has his place of honor in our animal burial plot next to our 33 year old stud horse Young Paul Bert.

Rest in peace my good friend, I will miss you....