Born
11-07-96 Died 01-20-08
Sabre our German Shepherd grew to be the most calm Gentle Giant (as we were told) that you could know. We dealt with the usual puppy things like the chewing and had to throw out a couch and a chair in the process. He also overcame the hurdle of carsickness by spending much of his early days going on quick trips to somewhere fun for him. He was so calm and friendly that my former employer said ” There’s something wrong with him. That’s just not normal” when I told him that Sabre would sometimes greet a stranger by running over to them and lay on his back to get a belly rub. Sabre was a loyal and family dog. He always wanted to know where his boys were and felt it was his duty to watch and protect them. If they went down the street he would follow behind them. When our youngest was a toddler he gently nudged him away from the street back to the sidewalk. Sabre had a lot of expression in his face. He had very distinct eyebrows that he would move when talking to him. My husband and I often said that it looked like he was smiling when he was doing something that he enjoyed. He would also cock his head from side to side if he even heard us talking about him. Sabre was intelligent and learned how to manipulate us in his older years. He loved his treats and would stand in front of the T.V. until he got one. When that didn’t work he would pretend that he had to go outside “REALLY BAD”. When we got to the door he’d race to the pantry where his cookies were kept. That was our first indictation that something was wrong. He refused to eat his cookies that were his favorite. We took him in and found out that he had Cancer. We decided to take him home and make him as comfortable as possible with some pain meds and prednisone. We wanted a little more time with him to love on him and spoil him. It wasn’t long though before Sabre let us know that he’d had enough and it was time. He couldn’t get up anymore. We called Dr.Cooney (she told us to call her Kathy) and she came out that morning. Sabre layed in one of his favorite spots looking out our sliding glass door. His family surrounded him and even the cat hung around who usually hid when strangers came in. We all had our hands on him petting him as he passed. Home to Heaven is such an appropriate name because that is exactly what it is. Our Sabre went from his home to Heaven.
–Sean and Lori Matthew and Eric Tyrrell