Jake – The loss of a special friend

With heavy hearts we have an announcement to make concerning Jake, one of our rescue bears.

Starting last July, Jake began stumbling and dragging his back toes and this had progressed to the loss of the use of his back legs. He had been under the watchful eye of our veterinarian and one of the best surgeons around. Both agreed that putting him through a spinal surgical procedure was not in his best interest, with the combined stress of the whole situation and the lack of ability to give him proper aftercare. As well, the surgeon gave him a 97% chance of never walking right again, even with the surgery. Following the start of this in July, the next 9 months Jake continued to go outside every day, play, enjoy the enrichment and toys either in the morning before we opened or after hours. During his last week Jake had let us know that it was his time. We were blessed to be able to help him pass peacefully on April 2nd instead of letting him suffer. A necropsy was performed so that we could have answers, not only for Jake, but for other bears that might go through this in the future. We had not yet made an announcement, or informed those that have visited us since, because we wanted to have a clear answer for everyone. The answers came to us recently in a lab report showing that Jake had simply been dealt a bad hand in genetics. The lab results showed he had degenerative changes through his spine, much like in old dog degenerative myelopathy. Nothing could have been done to prevent this and nothing could have been done to fix this. Jake had a wonderful 10 years here with us and will always have a place in our hearts here at MGE as the happy, handsome boy we will remember him as.

For those concerned about Maggi, who was rescued with Jake and has been with him since before they arrived here, she is doing very well. She had spent more time with Jake than anyone else had and she knew he was ready to cross the rainbow bridge. We helped prepare Maggi for this change by having her come outside by herself while we were open and letting her spend time with Jake outside after we had closed. She continued to come out by herself after Jake had passed and she still enjoyed her time outside. Recently, she has been introduced to Brutus, who she instantly had a connection with.

We want to thank everyone for their love and support during these tough times.