Yesterday was a bad day (not reptiles, but pet related)

[Cas]

Yesterday was not a good day. Had to put down my 11 year old 'siberian' husky Shadow. He'd been sick for about a month with an infection around his nose and left eye that just wasn't responding well to antibiotics. He started having trouble opening his mouth this week, and Wednesday he was having trouble breathing, so we took him to the vet again... where he started bleeding heavily and had to be put on fluids. Thursday he seemed somewhat better (breathing better and more alert), so we took him out for a walk and then let the vet sedate him. We stayed with him until he was mostly asleep, and then left while the vet went in to see if there was anything he could do. He called us about 15 minutes later and told us it was an infection in the jawbone... most of his upper jaw on the left side was rotting away and there wasn't much we could do (we could have opted to have the bone removed, etc, etc... but at his age it would have been a very difficult thing for him to adjust to... and the vet said it would be very hard to be sure to get all of the infection out). The vet recommended euthanizing him, and I told him to go ahead. I can't believe how much I miss him.
Shadow would have been 12 next month.

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Sledding when Shadow was around a year old.

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The family. Shadow's in the back, in front of him is his half niece Savannah. On the gound is his half nephew Domino, and lying down on the doghouse is Kuma, Shadow's half sister and mother to the other two.

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In the dog car about to go for a run. Taken in May. (From right to left: Savannah, Shadow, Kuma, and Domino)

It's hard to tell from these pics, but Shadow was pure white with blue eyes, and the most soulful expression you've ever seen. (All of my good pics of Shadow are actual photos, and my scanner doesn't work with my new comp *sigh*)

Dawn