Bye Shadow

As I wrote before, we are a household of five dogs.

Make that four.

Shadow, one of Ma2's "Boys", was put down earlier today.

Shadow was a big, old, Lhaso Apso with attitude.  A grumpy old man whose growl frightened Vinny, a lab mix four times Shadow's size.

As a pup, Shadow had a near death experience.  A nylon stocking in his intestine was the culprit.

Shadow was a cudly dog, Ma2 says.  Jodie called him "Teddy Bear".   Shadow loved to play, he loved to tip over the small trash can we have by the computer table.  We have a plastic container--our bill box--Shadow would take whatever paper he could get out of there and eat it.  He even tried to eat the lid!

Jodie called Shadow the "Matriarch"  ("patriarch" woman!) because he carried himself in such a kingly manner around all the other dogs in the house.

My favorite memory of Shadow is how he would sit at my feet while I sit at the kitchen table.  He would get as close as he could to my feet and lay down.  I could never resist reaching down to pet the Big Guy.

Yesterday the vet said that diabetes was getting the best of Shadow.  Eleven years old.  Pain.  No guarantee that extreme measures would even help him.

Ma2 brought him home last night so we could say goodbye.  I got choked up this morning as I pet Shadow and said my goodbye.

Shadow is curled up in a much better place now.

Bye Shadow.

Skeeter, Shadow, and me