VMAC Statements/Speeches, January 31, 2005

By Tom Stafford

My name is Tom Stafford, I make no money being here, I drove here in my van. I'm going to read what my daughter wrote. Jackie had Bear from the time she was 5 years old till his death.

To the makers of Proheart 6: To my knowledge my dad and I took our dog "Bear" and our two other dogs, "Angel" and "Mickey" to the vet as we did every year to get a check up. As my dad and I waited for the vet to call us, we noticed that they had come out with a new heart worm shot. So my dad decided to get educated a little more about it. As he heard somewhat about it, all three of our dogs got the shot on the date of May 9th, 2002.

Not two days after that my brothers dog had a seizure.

Now back to before Bear had his first recorded seizure on 11/13/01. Not long after my dad stayed up all night with Bear.... watching over and taking care of him because in that night and the morning before Bear had a total of 15 or more seizures.

I woke up the next day to my mo taking me to school and I came out of my and saw that Bear was having another seizure. It was horrible! I was scared, sad and confused all at once. It hurt me to see him like that and I went to school so disturbed I could hardly focus.

Over a period of time Bear had 3 more shots and a lot more seizures. My family and I helped him through them but it was really heart breaking.

On the day of September 14, 2004 my dad and I had helped him through a seizure before we had to leave. My dad and I went to a guys house to pick up some furniture and left Bear there at home all alone. After we got all of the furniture loaded we went home.

I g ot the keys from my dad and unlocked the door to the house. I went inside looking at Bear as I walked by hiim putting my stuff down. I thought at first my best friend of eight long loving years was just sleeping so I bent down to pet him through the cage and calling his name to try and wake him up. Afaater a little while of trying to wake him up I finally realized that my best friend in the whole wide world was DEAD.

I broke out in tears as I ran outside, hysterical, trying to get out that Bear was dead!

As my dad realized what had happened, he ran inside. A couple of seconds later he came out crying. I will never forget what he looked like, his eyes were wide open and teeth bared. It was heart breaking.

I don't think I can ever forget it. Seeing that I was the one that found him there. I will never LOVE another dog like him again. There will never BE another dog like him. He was the sweetest dog you ever did meet and he knew when you were upset. He would always come in my room and whine and sit right by me and comfort me. He was the best dog ever and because of the makers of Proheart 6 I will never see him again,

Tom Stafford