Our friend, Shadow, went over the Rainbow Bridge on Wednesday. Shadow lived in North Carolina with his family and his beloved mistress, Kate. He was a great friend companion and his family is very sad. Goodbye, dear friend.
Addendum from Kate:
"He was 13 years old, and the pick of the litter when we bought him from Emerald Valley Shelties in Siler City. My mom always laughs when I say that, because Shadow was the only dog left when we bought him. He was 10 weeks old, and people could tell he was going to be too big for a sheltie. When Kristy sold him to us she made us sign a form promising that we would have him neutered so he wouldn't pass those big genes on to other pupsters.
A few weeks after we brought him home I was in a bad accident. I was in the hospital more than four months, and I had to learn to talk and move again. Shadow helped when I came home. I had to call his name in one breath or he didn't know that I was calling him. I also had to talk loud enough that he could hear me. He would jump on my bed or sleep at the foot of it every night when I called him.
But sometimes he would get into trouble while everyone was sleeping. One time after Halloween my parents woke up to this crunch, crunch, crunching sound. They found him nose deep in a plastic jack-o-lantern. Somehow he managed to get the candy out of the wrappers! He had a white lightning mark on his forehead that looked like Harry Potter's, and he put up with us dressing him like a wizard and tying kites to his leash.
We named him Shadow because he followed us everywhere. He would run around us when we played in the back yard to make sure we stayed together. When I came home from the hospital I wanted to feed him every morning. At first I walked very slowly, so he would go to his bowl and come back to me two or three times while I walked toward his bowl. When we went on vacation Shadow would go to Kristy's house, which we called the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. His mom was there, and he always seemed to like visiting as long as we weren't gone too long.
Then he got a bum leg and a bad heart, and even though he was taking heart medicine we could tell he was getting weaker. But every time Mom and Dad talked about how he wasn't going to live much longer he would do something that made us laugh -- like walking into the kitchen and staring at us like "I know you're not talking about me," or kicking off one of the boots that kept him from slipping on the floor.
Sunday was my brother's birthday, and my Dad was afraid Shadow would die. He was breathing really hard and wouldn't eat. But as soon as my brother woke up Shadow made a dog-gone awesome recovery! He ended the day eating ribs and birthday cake, and he hung in there for a few more days. He died Wednesday on the way to the vet. We are sad, but he will always be a part of our memories, and I will smile when I remember the funny things he did."
