Rocky, Mini, Clifford & Keller

"Rocky"
1980-1994

He was adopted when he was 10 years old. His family did not want him any longer as the children had moved away. When I adopted him in 1990 he did not know how to play. After about 3 months with me and my other dog, Helen he was running around the yard playing ball. His personality really started to develop, he would sing to me almost everyday. He developed cancer of the tonsil my first year of veterinary school in 1992. It was removed successfully. He was finally euthanized due problems associated with old age. He was cremated and sits with the others on a shelf in the family room.


"Mini"
1969-1074

My dad brought "Mini" home when I was 5 years old and she was 1 year old. This is when I decided I would become a vet. The picture was taken when I was 5-6 years old. I do not remember as much about "Mini" as I do about my other dogs. I do remember my sisters and I going out to her dog house to cover her ears when the fire siren went off. I spent countless hours with her as a kid and was devastated when we found her dead one evening at feeding time. This was my first pet loss.


"Clifford"
1974-1989

I remember going to pick him out on a rainy day. We into the barn and chose him because he was chewing on my mothers shoe. He was my bud from 4th grade, through high school and through college. He even went with me for my last year of college. When he was elderly he would go with me, on Fridays, to the vet clinic where I worked. He had his weekly ECGs and always went up to the receptionists to see what kind of food they had for him to steel. One day he crashed and there was nothing I could do to help him but to euthanize him. This was the first time I had to make a decision such as that for one of my own. The whole vet clinic was crying. He was cremated and is also on the shelf in the family room.


"Keller"
1990-1999

She was adopted at 6 months of age because she was deaf. She was a very busy dog. Some of her favorite activities included watching birds from the window, going through the Dairy Queen drive through, sleeping under the covers always having to be touching me, and flipping her Kong toy around. In September of 1998 she was diagnosed with a golf ball sized bone tumor inside her skull compressing a part of her brain that controls vital functions like breathing and heart rate. She was placed on high doses of steriods and to everyone’s amazement she was doing well at Christmas. I only expected to have a few weeks with her post diagnosis. Unfortunately, she ended up with pancreatitis and a bleeding ulcer secondary to her steroids. She was in ICU at the veterinary school where I am employed for 5 days. She had a 50/50 chance of surviving. She was brave and amazing-she continued to have a great attitude. She finally went home and did well for about a month until the pancreatitis came back. I chose to euthanize her because she was too good of a dog to let suffer, so on Feb. 19th after she had some ice cream and all sorts of junk food, we parted ways.