It has been a while since Baron left, and I feel I am truly blessed to have another Shepherd that I have grown to love every bit as much as Baron.
As I stated above, it was a shock to see he had been so afflicted, so quickly.
As with most things I do in life, his death was planned well in advance.
When he was a year old, I had made arraingements with the vet, that when the time came to put him down, the vet would put him down where he was around familia surroundings, and not some cold examining table in a vet's hospital.
At this point, I need to go back just a little so one gets a better understanding of how this came about.
We had a ritual here, that being every morning I would take a cup of coffee and Baron and I would head out to the front yard where I would sit and see what was going on in the neighborhood.
Baron would walk around and once in a while bark at a passing neighbor.
When time to get back to the house, he would usually be the first one in the house, always running ten paces in front of me.
One morning I headed back to the house, and he was not running in front of me.
I turned to see where he was, and he was 20 feet behind me, laying down in the middle of the driveway.
I rushed over too him and it appeared he was very lathargic, and very tired.
I got him to his feet, and he slowly made it back to the house.
I called the vet, and brought him in immediately.
Before this incident, Baron had developed a cough, and both the vet and I felt it was "kennel cough".
He had developed a scratching routien of his belley.
He did not have fleas so a skin allergy was suspected.
On that day when he stopped in the driveway, once at the vet, he was xrayed, and that is when the vet found the cancer.
Apparently the scratching and coughing were direct symptoms of the lung cancer.
I took him home and watched him closely for a week.
The vet had made an appointment with an ornacologist and before we could see him, I knew it was time to put him down.
As I said, I monitored him very closely that week, and when it was time, I called the vet.
Talk about a stressing time, this was one of the hadest things I ever did in my life.
Baron had a restless night, and I decided that morning (also my birthday) that I would not let this beautiful , caring friend suffer one minute longer than was necessary.
While waiting for the vet to show up at the house, I let Baron out on the rear deck.
He had recovered from the restless night, and was now barking and jumping, trying to get at a squirell which he always did when on the deck.
I had built the raised deck around a large black walnut tree, and squirells called it home.
Chasing them was Baron's favorite pastime.
Seeing him so active gave me second thoughts, and the thought went through my mind, "Oh God, am I doing the right thing, he will be dead in less than an hour".
He looked so happy.
Then I told myself "no", it has to be done.
"I love him too much to let him suffer."
The vet showed up with a couple of his staff members, and I motioned for Baron to lay down on the carpet in front of the fireplace, which was his favorite spot to nap during the day.
He had been trained to obey signs.
I put his head on my lap and patted his head, telling him it was time to sleep.
He went within seconds of being injected .
The one thing I will always hold near to me is the fact that he died at home, laying close to the one that loved him the most.
That was a very difficult day to say the leaste.
He died in January, and that December, the vet hospital holds an evening christmas party every year , strickly for those clients who have lost a pet over the year.
The large tree in the lobby is decorated with pictures of everyone's pet.
We get to talk about our beloved pets, and it was a great outlet,especially foir those who lost a pet close to the event.
Time heels all wounds, and life goes on.
Elsa came into my life, and she gets all the love and attention one could ask for.
She was seven when I adopted her.
I could have adopted a much younger Shepherd that was in the cage next too her, but I felt no one would adopt an older dog, and the shelter told me a bit of her history, as much as they knew, and her's in her earlier life, was one of abuse.
I decided then and there, she would have the best life I could possibly give her, for however many years she has left.
Unlike Baron, she needs constant attention when out in the yard, and our nightly walks in the park.
For most of her time outside, she is digging and playing in the large sand box I built for her.
It is in an enclosed, fenced in area in the back yard.
She is extremely agressive with other dogs, and doesn't want to be friends with them, she wants to kill.
It has cost me a few hundred bucks for emergency service for two small dogs she mauled.
Both maulings were when she was off leash when she should not have been..
I watch her, and our surroundings whenever we are in the park.
Not a day goes by when I don't thing about Baron.
His ashes are in an oak container, sitting on the fireplace harth.
That was his spot.
Having both these beautiful Shepherds in my life is truly a gift from God, and I am very, very blessed.
Bob.
). Those and Cane Corsos do have a pretty bad reputation around kids from what I gather especially in the origins they originated from. If you hear stuff about Chows and Sharpes being nasty dogs around kids.....
