~In Honour of Shadow~

~Shadow~ Thanksgiving Day 1998 - Father's Day 2007

Our beloved dog "Shadow" passed away early this morning........not a good way to start off Father's Day. Just getting back home this weekend from helping out Mom & Dad, I was planning on getting him into the vet's for his annual check-up sometime this week since it was due by the end of this month. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Over the last couple of weeks, Shadow had a couple of poor mornings whereby the girls found him breathing kinda hard & hanging around the ceramic tiles in their bathroom. I'd made a mental note to get him into the vet's office because of that, plus the fact that I've heard big dogs do not live too long because their size puts more stress on their hearts. I just came back home Friday night & he was his usual loving & pesky self up until Sunday morning. Saturday night he hung out with me at the bonfire.....soaking up my hugs & kisses as I missed him all week. He definitely was aptly named as he stuck like glue to me. I can't even go into the kitchen for a drink without him being stuck to my side.....he's always been my "sidekick" & I am going to miss him soooo much. Actually, just while sitting here I could swear that I'd heard him breathing & sighing...yes ~~sighing....while he waits for me to get off the @#*@#* computer to play with him or give him snacks.
Never again will he drive me totally insane in the kitchen.....no matter what the reason I'd be in there for, he'd be right with me to see what he could get. He'll never again clean out the cat food bowls on them.

I'll also miss Shadow's special greeting for me every morning. He'd lay at the top of the stairs....grinning his fool head off at me, then roll over for a belly rub, all the while moaning & talking to me. I'd never get by him without paying attention to him for a few minutes before starting my day. My family always laughed at me since "after Shadow, they came first", lol.

Our three cats will greatly miss him too. Shadow should have been a female since he thought he was "The Mom" to any of our other pets. Salem (our stray cat who's been with us going on 2 years) loved to hiss at him. He was finally used to Shadow but loved to hiss if he was too close. Misty (B2's cat) loved to steal what she could from his food bowl. Aurora (our Garfield look-a-like) was totally, madly in love with him (thank goodness they were both fixed or who knows what she'd try to do with him, lol). She's just wandering around the house looking for him, and even (OMG) braved the Big Outdoors to look for him too. We are all devastated with losing him....Shadow was an important part of this family......greatly loved & he'll be greatly missed.

Rest in peace Shadow.....and someday we'll see you again........along with other wonderful family pets from our past.