another one crosses the bridge

[Trek420]

I had to put DogTrek down. Always a bit of an alpha dog but a very sweet dog I dearly loved she had begun to fail and got more aggressive. She may have been in some pain at that point. I knew she had arthritis pretty bad.

Since it could have been the stress of the move we tried several things.

She'd just had a checkup from her regular vet who knew her all her doggie life. We had her checked out by a great vet here who also consulted with her Hayward vet, George. She was testing low thyroid and there had been many changes to her routine for sure with the move but she may have had some strokes.

We'd seen evidence of that and I had to make a very tough decision.

KnotDog went to stay with H while we had some days with TrekDog as an only dog. She was very spoiled during that time, it was her special time.

I watched to see if the behavior continued and if not, if she got back to normal we'd slowly re-introduce KnotDog. Maybe it was him being there but even with him gone while she never bit she was obviously on edge.

She seemed to have pain and actually growled at me. So we had to make a tough decision.

I'm very sad. She did have ::at least 14:: very good years which is a long long time for a dog!

If the shelter told a fib to get her adopted "Oh, she's only 9 months to a year old! " maybe she's older than that. I have to think if I'd just stayed put longer in the Bay area so she would not be stressed if she was having strokes she might have had maybe a couple more months.

She enjoyed her trip north! and we enjoyed having her with us.

She always liked going in the car. In her youth she'd camped, slept through thunder storms in a tent, even enjoyed boat rides. Adventure dog! And since I'd resigned we'd spent the last weeks she and I exploring favorite East Bay walks of hers.

On this trip she got to explore rest stops, walk a bit of Ashland and to see and smell Seattle and see and meet her "brother dog". But then may have just had an episode again like a suspected mini stroke she had recently.

The last 2 days have been all about her, just walks and endless treats.

I miss her very much, she may have been a handful and not the friendliest of dogs to other dogs, but she was always my dog and a sweet dog. She actually saved my life several times.

This picture is of her with my contractor during the remodel. TrekDog is gently sniffing a foster kitten.