Can I please omit the fine details of how it happened, except to explain that Sunny's hindquarters gave out on her completely and rather dramatically. One minute she could walk and the next, she was down. It was Friday evening.
S. helped me carry her to her pen and the next day I was able to get her to a vet who put her to sleep.
I was telling everyone she was 14 years old, but this afternoon, I put the last piece of paper in her file in my cabinet and I saw that she was actually 15 years old. And that she was born in July.
Sunny was not a demanding dog. She didn't ask for much. But she was always present and accounted for, ready to join you in whatever was going on.
She shone the brightest when we used to have foster Shelties. She was gentle with the traumatized ones, and stern with the rowdy. She showed them how a proper dog should behave and steadied many a freaked out creature that came through our doors with her no nonsense philosophy of canine life.
Ben was one of those fosters that came and was so wonderful we had to keep him... and while these two were together, they made a very good team. Even though Ben looks like he's trying to eat Sunny alive in this picture, it was all in good sport at the time...
In her day, she was quite the athlete. I forgot how robust she was in her younger years.
I never knew a more healthy dog. Except for one trip to the vet to remove a foxtail that had gotten embedded in her thigh, she was in perfect health up until just recently.
She loved to go to the creek and seemed happiest there... here she is a few years back:
Oddly enough just about 5 days before her passing, I had taken her up to the creek to give her a much needed bath. It was then, when I saw her soaking wet, that I realized how thin and frail her hindquarters had become. :-(
It's going to be very strange around here without her. Very strange indeed.
Here is one of my favorite photos of her when we were still down in Mather...
Rest in peace Sunny.
You were a good dog.
In her day, she was quite the athlete. I forgot how robust she was in her younger years.
I never knew a more healthy dog. Except for one trip to the vet to remove a foxtail that had gotten embedded in her thigh, she was in perfect health up until just recently.
She loved to go to the creek and seemed happiest there... here she is a few years back:
Oddly enough just about 5 days before her passing, I had taken her up to the creek to give her a much needed bath. It was then, when I saw her soaking wet, that I realized how thin and frail her hindquarters had become. :-(
It's going to be very strange around here without her. Very strange indeed.
Here is one of my favorite photos of her when we were still down in Mather...
Rest in peace Sunny.
You were a good dog.