Shadow's Story - and last update. R.I.P. Shadow

We recently had to have our dog, Shadow, put down. It was hard on all of us, especially since he was such a good & loyal dog. I thought I would take a few moments to tell you his story...

SHADOW'S STORY

Kyle started asking for a dog three years ago. He wanted one so bad, he promised to take care of it himself---walk the dog, feed the dog, clean up the dog's poop. Y'know, what every kid says to try and talk their parents into getting a dog!! We were building our house at the time & there was no way I was going to try and house-train a dog in our new house!! As a family, we decided that we would get a dog someday and that it would have to be a smart, active, big dog. We all decided that we liked German Shepards because they had all those characteristics. So, we left it at that.

Fast forward to a few years later (May 2008). I was looking through our local Suburban Journal (the Newstime) and saw this picture of an adorable black German Shepard at a local shelter. His pic was SOOO cute, we had been in our house for a year at this point, and the dog was 1 year old and already house-trained!! I knew it was meant to be. So, we went out to see the dog right away (his name was Sam at the time) and it was love at first sight. He was so friendly & energetic. We went back a few days and picked him up. When we picked him up, we found out that he was scheduled to be euthanized THE NEXT DAY! It was only a few days after we got Shadow home that we also found out we were expecting a baby!!

Kyle picked out the name Shadow, Hannah reluctantly agreed to it. When we first got Shadow he had some funny quirks. He did not like to get in the car, he would not even walk between the two cars parked in the garage, he refused to go up and down the staircase, and he hated his dog kennel at our house! The first time we left him in the kennel, I returned home to find that he had chewed through the plastic on the bottom of the crate!! He had even bent a few of the metal rods. He was very strong!! Shadow did eventually get over all of his quirks and ended up LOVING to take car rides.

It was only a few days before Shadow became a part of our family. He LOVED to be around us--constantly. (Which is why he hated being locked up in his crate--he was lonely!!) We loved being around him even more. He was such a gentle and friendly dog, but he sure had a loud, mean bark! He would scare anyone knocking on the door, only to find that when they came inside he was so sweet and friendly.

Shadow has always been a good dog, too. He never begged for food, jumped on the furniture, or jumped on people. His favorite activity was playing frisbee. He would do it all day if we would let him. Like most dogs, Shadow loved being outside. He liked it so much, that he taught himself how to open the garage door and go outside! This began as an accident, but ended up being our favorite trick that he did.

It started when our neighbor noticed Shadow outside by himself. The neighbor saw that the garage door was still cracked open, and just let him back in the house & closed the door. (Matt was the only one home at the time and was working on the basement). A few minutes later the neighbor saw Shadow sitting in the front yard again. So, he let him back in the house and made sure he shut the door to the garage all the way. Well, the third time that the neighbor saw him outside, he called for Matt. It was then that we discovered that Shadow was opening the door himself! It wasn't that he was jumping at the door & happened to hit the handle to open it. No, he was purposely putting his mouth on the door handle, pulling down, and backing up to open the door. Now, that's a smart dog!! It was time to either train him to close the door after himself or start locking the door so he couldn't sneak out unnoticed. Unfortunately, we had to lock the door. Training a dog to close the door after himself did not turn out to be as easy as we thought.

Speaking of training, we really enjoyed training and teaching Shadow new tricks. I signed him up & took him to train at the Humane Society in Chesterfield. We got him through the first three levels before I was too pregnant to take him anymore. He was able to sit, stand, stay, "leave it" (which meant he could not take what we put right in front of him), "get it" (which was the okay to take what we put in front of him), he would not go through the door until we told him "free", and his favorite game was fetch. He loved to get the frisbee or his favorite toy, "Squeakers".

Shadow's Christmas Present - A New Light-Up Frisbee!!

One of Shadow's first "tricks" was when we would say "outside", he would cock his head. He did it every time. If he already had his head cocked one way, he would turn it to the other side the next time we said it. We loved it. It was out second favorite trick after Shadow learned how to open doors. Shadow alos LOVED ice. He would always come running whenever he heard the icemaker. He would chase the ice around on the kitchen floor before chewing it up. It was so cute. Even when Shadow was not feeling well and a little lethargic, he would still ALWAYS come running to the icemaker when he heard it.

The kids also loved to set up obstacle courses for him, both inside and outside the house. They would use chairs & the broomstick to see how high they could get him to jump. They wanted to even do a "Dog Olympics" for all the neighborhood dogs last summer, but we never got around to it. In hindsight, I wish we would have done it.

The kids had so much fun giving Shadow his first bath. He definitely did not like the sprayer!!!

One of our favorite memories of Shadow includes playing in the leaves with him. During the Fall, the kids would rake all the leaves into a huge pile and hide Shadow's frisbee in the pile. They loved seeing Shadow dive nose-first into the pile to get his Frisbee. Hannah also had so much fun throwing the leaves into the air and trying to catch them as they fell. Shadow would try to catch them, too!

Another favorite memory is playing with Shadow in the snow. This was our first winter with Shadow and we were excited to see how he liked the snow. He didn't like it very much when he had to go outside to go to the bathroom, but he LOVED playing with the kids in the snow. Shadow pretty much loved doing anything with the kids, especially playing frisbee of course!!

Some of our other memories that will never be forgotten:

Late in December of 2008, Shadow started to get sick. He was having diarehha constantly and not eating well. He began losing weight very quickly and you could see how skinny he was because his ribs stuck out so much. We began taking Shadow to the Vet weekly. The first blood test came back showing that he was basically "starving to death". He had been eating, but was not getting the protein and nutrients from his food. It was all going straight through him before he could pull out the nutrients from the food. We did an x-ray to see if there was a blockage somewhere, and that came back negative. We switched his food to things that were "easy on his stomach". He began having a picky diet!! One day he liked the vet food, one day he didn't. One day he liked his old food, the next day he didn't. One day he liked canned food, the next day he didn't. You get the picture. We ended up having three different bowls of food out for him, so he could choose what he felt like eating! What a spoiled/loved dog he was!

Shadow only had a couple accidents in the house, which we understood since he could hardly help himself!! Even up until his last days, though, he would hold it until we took him out--even if it was in the middle of the night. We were never able to diagnose exactly what was wrong with Shadow. We thought it was EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency), which is often found in German Shepards, but that test came back negative too. We put him on different Antibiotics and even stroids for a while. Shadow had his good days and his bad days. There were times when we thought he might make a full recovery. He was eating better, his bowel movements were a little more solid, and he had more energy. It wasn't until he began to be lethargic that we knew it didn't look like he would pull through. We would call him, and he would just lay there and not even lift his head. He woudl just open his eyes and look our direction. We took him to the vet on the second day that he was acting this way. The vet said that he was retaining fluids because he was not processing the protein in his food. He also had fluid in his lungs. We had to make the choice.

We brought Shadow back home so the kids could say their goodbyes after school. This was a really tough day for me. I was home alone with Shadow all day knowing that this would be his last. I tried to focus on the positive, like all the good memories we made in just a few months and the fact that we picked him up the day before he was scheduled to be euthanized and were able to give him a loving home for 8 months. Shadow was certainly at the point that he was no longer comfortable and we didn't want him to be in pain. So, logically I knew we were doing the right thing, but emotionally I was so sad and going to miss him so much. The kids handled it really well, better than me in fact! Hannah cried with me, Kyle was okay. It helped that we had already talked about what would probably happen to Shadow since he had been sick for so many weeks. I was the emotional one raging with pregnancy hormones that couldn't keep it together. Matt was, of course, our rock. He is able to stand strong through anything. It was Matt that actually brought Shadow to the vet. When they left was so tough. I mean, how can you give enough hugs and how many times can you say goodbye to a loved one that you know is not coming back? I have never had a close relative pass away, so this was something I had never experienced. Kyle and Hannah have had two dogs at their dad's house pass away and had been through this type of thing before. It was hard for everyone, even Matt, who would bever admit it.

In the end, we were blessed to have had such an amazing dog like Shadow. He was our little angel sent to us while I was pregnant. I always thought it was interesting that we found out I was pregnant a few days after getting Shadow and that we had to put Shadow down on 02/05/09, less than a week before Baby Blake was born. Now the question is...will we get another dog? It depends on who you ask. If you asked Kyle or Hannah, the answer would be an immediate yes. If you asked Matt (the one who took him outside to go to the bathroom and play frisbee everday during the cold winter), the answer would be an immediate no. If you asked me, I would say that we have a newborn baby that we are focusing on right now. But...who knows. Maybe in a few years?? My fear is that I know we'll never get a dog that was as good and amazing as our Shadow. He will be missed!!

Oh, one more thing. What should I do with this huge dog crate now??Hmmmm........