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Jonas

Jonas - the Sweetheart

We lost Jonas in August of 2008, a month after her 16th birthday. For some reason, it has been doubly hard by making me miss Holly again along with Jonas. Because of that I just can't seem to rewrite the following, so it's going to stay the way it is for now - maybe always.

4/2009

Jonas was originally adopted from the SPCA by Matt and not intended for us, but needing a home, she arrived here in January 1993 - just as we were leaving to take Matt to school in Virginia. Since we basically knew nothing about her personality, we segregated Jonas in the rec room for the safety of the other pets. Within 24 hours she had redesigned the rec room carpet and door - as in - destroyed. The poor girl was simply lonely and craving company, as soon as she was allowed to join Chipper and the cats she was content. Well, the rec room needed a new carpet anyhow.. and a door isn't that tough to replace so it wasn't really a big issue.

Jonas is a mix of Yellow Lab and German Shepherd and is absolutely the best. She's intelligent, affectionate, sensitive, protective, etc, etc, ad nauseum. If she has a fault it may be that we tend to forget she's a dog and when she acts like one we're a bit surprised.

If you wonder why a girl is named Jonas - her namesake is the professional biker Jonas Carney. Any further questions on this situation should be addressed to Matt. (Matt says, " Ahhh, just call her Jonessa.")

Several years ago, she developed nose bleeds for no apparent reason. When Valley could find no cause they referred us to Cornell who diagnosed (mostly by serendipity) an auto immune problem that causes her platelet count to approach zero and thus her blood can't clot. The treatment for this is to suppress the immune system with the steroid Prednisone. It has to be a continuous thing, if the Pred is stopped, it frequently has no effect when restarted, so she's on it forever and gets a blood test about every 10-12 weeks (it used to be every 6-8 but she's been stable for some time now) to adjust the dosage. The objective is to use as little as possible while keeping the platelet count in the normal range. Having to keep her on Pred (it's a steroid) is not a good thing. It made her want to eat constantly and drink gallons of water. At high dosages there can also be very negative personality changes, but Jonas was simply less affectionate. Her wonderfully even temperament has never wavered and most of the time she's been on an alternate day dose which minimizes the side effects and lets her be her loving self. The appetite thing did cause substantial weight gain and she has to be on a strict diet which has been very beneficial, although I'm sure she doesn't enjoy it.