Empty Space in the Dog Yard, Empty Space in My Heart.

Tuesday, March 3rd 2009 will be a day I will never forget. My dear friend Dubois or Doobie Dog as he was more commonly known had to be put to sleep on that day. After two weeks of loose stools which we tried everything to curb that he was off to our veterinarian for going over. We could feel something solid in his stomach so x-rays were taken. There was definitely some sort of mass in his intestines. I brought him in for surgery Tuesday morning with the hope of removing a glove or other foreign object and a week long recovery. We had no such luck. Doobie had a massive cancer growth which had spread through out his intestines.



My dog yard will never be the same again. Doobie was a very special dog. He is one of four pups from the only litter we have ever whelped here. The mother did not care for the puppies so we bottle fed four of them with a 100% survival rate. Not an easy thing to accomplish. Doobie had pneumonia from the bottle feeding when he was two weeks old. He was on antibiotics for a week and after four days of feeding him drops of milk with a spoon his lungs cleared and he began to drink from the bottle again.
Dubois means out of the woods in French so we thought this was a very appropriate name for the little guy.

Doobie wasn’t the prettiest dog in the yard nor did he have the best gait or build. He was rather plan in his markings but he had a certain way about him that made him stand out. He was the most driven running dog I have ever had in our kennel. Whenever we were on a run if we stopped for more than a minute or two he was always the first one to start snapping his jaws and yipping to go. He was my main lead dog for the past year. His desire to run kept the rest of the team in motion. He was energetic and enthusiastic right to the very end. He did his last run this past Sunday and you would have hardly known he was sick. When I sat in the dog yard you could always find Doobie right at my side. He seemed more content to spend time sitting next to me than running around with the other dogs.

I suppose I will get over this with time but it is hard to believe right now as tears roll down my face every time I picture his big brown eyes gazing into mine. I know no other dog will ever replace him and at the moment my desire to run dogs at all just doesn’t exist. Our team just doesn’t seem right with out Doobie out in lead. Doobie would have been five years old on Saint Patrick’s Day next week. I love you Doobie and you will always remain in my heart.