Sunday, October 10, 2010

The Sheltie Rogues' Gallery


I thought it might be fun to share all of our Shelties with you. Our first Sheltie was Libby. We did a bad thing and went to a petshop and bought our first Sheltie there, based on looks and not research 30 years ago. Boy, was she cute. Libby lasted only two weeks. To our deep sorrow, she developed distemper and died during the holidays. But on Christmas morning before she got sick, she opened all of her presents. That's her above. Golly, she was a smart dog.

Then came Albie.



Albie was short for Albion's Angel. I always had a thing for the Romantic Poets--Blake, Coleridge, etc. Hence the name. Albie lived the longest of all of our Shelties--to 17 years. He loved to run in figure 8's with his buddy Brittany and could catch the frisbee just like a border collie--only faster. Albie developed dementia and one day could not recognize me as he came out from behind the heater in our basement in Evanston, IL. Then he took a chunk out of my hand. I did not want him to hurt anyone else, so we unfortunately had to take him to the vet's. The last day before he died he was the spryest he had been in months.



Brittany was a really sweet Sheltie and Albie's pal for 8 years. Brittany loved to be loved on. She also liked to herd Jim and me in our backyard when we played badminton. Both of them really enjoyed this. Brittany got a bone infection we thought when she was 8. We took to an orthopedic specialist and he plied her with antibiotics. A year later we were going to France--to Brittany of all things. We contemplated not taking our vacation with Brittany so sick, but our vet told us to go. We were staying in Pont Aven where Van Gogh painted. We were in a lovely old mill, the Moulin Rosmadec, by a babbling brook. It could not have been more serene and idyllic, and the hotel was renowned in Brittany for fine dining. I called the vet's to ask about Brittany's condition and found out that she ate that morning and then passed away from none other than vertebral cancer. It was not a bone infection as we thought. Of all the bizarre things--a dog named Brittany who died when we were in Brittany. We were heartbroken, but our vet told us she was better off, given the misdiagnosis by the specialist.

Lilah and Hannah came to us from Karen Munster in Joliet, Illinois, a small town out- side of Chicago. Karen is a well-known breeder of Shetland Sheepdogs and her Shelties are always happy and healthy Shelties.



We always referred to Lilah as our beautiful blonde bombshell, because she was outrageously pretty. Her mother was Madonna and her father was Ringo, so I guess being outrageous was in her blood. Lucy's kind of related to her, because Ringo was Lucy's grandfather.



Hannah was always sweet and very, very calm. Gigi's personality mirrors hers. Lilah and she were inseparable.


Hannah was very petite, but boy, she lived life in a big way. She ate the foam stuffing out of our sleeper sofa and was extremely fearless. Lilah, on the other hand, was a princess. But her claim to fame was hurling herself against the front door when the mailman came. I am surprised she never went through the glass.

Hannah died three years ago on November 1. She had hemolytic anemia, and we were fortunate to keep her alive through the miracle of cyclosporine, a cancer drug. When she did not have a quality of life as I was feeding her through a pipette and with baby food, we knew it was time.

Lilah became very depressed after Hannah died. Her most stalwart companion had been taken away. That's when we decided to get Lucy--again from Karen Munster. About a year after Hannah died, I noticed that Lilah occasionally coughed and appeared to have loud breathing. I took her to the vet's who recommended a cardiologist. We went to CCVA and learned that Lilah had congestive heart failure and that her kidneys were on the fritz too. Despite her beauty, she had always had awful teeth--like most Shelties do. Bad teeth can give dogs heart ailments. Lilah died on July 19, 2009. Her downhill slide was very sudden, and we whisked her to Friendship Animal Hospital. Jim said she died in his arms on the way.

No comments: