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Rikkanna — Smiley Face
Published: 2012-09-11 21:30:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 309; Favourites: 17; Downloads: 4
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Description
Diva's sister, Shayla at the 2011 National Specialty after making the cut in Veterans.Owned by Diva's breeder, who fondly referred to her as "Smiley Face, Smiley, Sue, Sissy, or Shay shay". She always smiled and snorted when she greeted you. It made my day every time.
Ch Shayla CDX RE JH OA OAJ WC CGC
Flat-coated Retriever
In Loving Memory
Oct. 31, 2003 - Sept. 11, 2012
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Comments: 40
she only lived 9 years? thats still pretty young for retriever dogs, did she become ill? i mean my cassie (black labrador retriever) is only 4 and she is turning grey and is already showing signs of slowing down. i personally think its stress related since we got our energetic hazel (chocolate labrador- the smaller thinner type you see running after ducks)
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She wasn't quite nine yet..
It is young. Too young. :/
She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma (cancer) the morning she died. The symptoms were nonexistent for awhile and then came on fast. One day she just got sick... just over a week later she passed on.
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yikes thats awful, doesnt look like it gave you a chance to get her better either. i would hate that to happen to my dog. to have non-existent symptoms and then just be overcome by them must of been hard for her, im sure she probably didn't want her owner to worry and just hid the pain she was going through
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Yeah... Sadly it didn't. By the time they knew what it was there wasn't much chance of helping her.
Partly I'm sure she did, and partly the cancer was just so aggressive and fast it didn't take long to get from nothing to where it was taking over and basically untreatable.
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i read the comments about her sister to, did she have the same problem? i mean because you mentions that her sister died shortly before or something
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Diva (my dog) died of an aggressive cancerous tumor diagnosed as condrosarcoma, but it may have been a mixed tumor and had some osteosarcoma involved as well. She died July 23 so not even two months had passed before Shayla became ill. Shayla also died of cancer, but a different type. She had abdominal lymphoma.
Unfortunately cancer is a common cause of death for a lot of flat-coats. It's one of those things that's a lot harder to predict and/or breed out of lines than something like hip displasia or similar diseases (which are mostly unheard of in flatties) because there are usually no precursors and it does not show up until later in the dog's life (usually long after the dog has been bred). That being said, lots of dogs die of cancer. Both purebreds and mixed breeds. It's just something that happens when you get old, and sadly dogs age much faster than people do. Why flat-coats seem to have such a short clock is beyond me, but the average life expectancy of the breed is about 8-12. Instead of something like 10-15 like other similar breeds.
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my mums dogs died of old age causes, both them labs.
petra (lab) died of old age causes
kim (alsation) died of old age causes
major died of old age causes (lab) old age causes.
i hope my dogs die that way but either way all mums died under the needle
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I would hate my dog to die under the needle, I vowed that when ALL my dogs die they will not die in a vet unless otherwise ( under the op) other tyan that if they need the needle then the vet comes to me so at least the dogs die in a cOmfortable place and not stress out
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Well sometimes it's what's best. Diva, for example, was in so much pain and there was nothing we could do to stop it. She was heavily medicated to the point where she wasn't even herself and she still hurt. It would have taken quite awhile longer for the tumor to finally crush her heart and kill her, so in the end the kindest thing we could do was speed up the process in the most painless way possible. It's not easy, but after all they do for us, sometimes they deserve a favor in return. I've seen a lot of suffering dogs near there time, and I've watched many drag on like that for a very long time, and as painful as it is to loose them I hate seeing them in that kind of pain.
I can understand that. It's always nice if you have a vet that will come to your home. Mine offered but then we talked some more, we all decided it would be difficult to have to bring the body to be disposed of on our own, and bag up our little girl, etc. Also it was our vet's day off so she would have had to drive to the clinic anyway to get the drugs, drive back (she lives near us) to administer them, and then go back to the clinic again to log everything... it was just better to meet her at the clinic (She was so nice to offer to do this on her day off and we didn't want to make her go completely out of her way). We gave Div, lots of extra meds so by the time she got to the vet's she was out enough she didn't much know the difference, so thankfully she wasn't as stressed as I was worried she'd be.
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it would be hard if my dog was on lots and lots of meds all the time, especially in the end to justg drug her up so she is out of it and then die when she is oblivious to know whats happening to her, especially if she hopes to see the next tomorrow. its a shame they cant speak to us and tell us there pain and what they want, to tell us when they are ready to die and how they want to die is we had to play god. sometimes i wish god would just be kind as to give the dogs the will to talk, it make everyones lives much easier
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Words would make it easier, but sometimes you don't need them at all. I could tell it was time for Diva. She had a horrible night, so awful the pain she was in. I looked into her eyes and I knew. Called the vet first thing in the morning. I worried about being wrong at first, but I can tell you now after the fact, I know I wasn't.
I think if you have a strong enough relationship with your dog, you'll know when it's time. They fight hard for us, which makes it hard, but in then end, as long as you're listening, they usually find a way of telling you.
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yes i believe that a strong bond make you understand the dogs heart, i have such a strong bond with cass that nothing can tear its way through it, i put her well before me. i know it sounds selfish and believe me i had many others say (its just a dog you can replace it - you cant replace your life) but its wrong, you can never replace you dog. you will never have a strong relationship with that other dog the way you did with this one. if i and my dog were in danger id make sure she was safe first, for knowing that if she were to die in front of me and i could of saved her, would kill me inside and out, i would find no reason to live.
my mum asked me a while back - do you consider your dogs as you children? rather having children of your own? my responce was YES, i hate CHILDREN, they are vermin to me, and i own two pet rats and even they are better than children. i consider cassie and hazel to be my life. that is all
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Thank you. <3
She was downright gorgeous. She had the coat, the movement -omg her movement, and the attitude. Quite an impressive girl. She won Best of Opposite at Eukanuba back in 2006 (one dog shy of going to group and showing up on tv), and won an Award of Merritt at the National Breed Specialty in 2005.
And she wasn't just a pretty face either, she was an excellent working dog in the field, and succeeded in the obedience and agility rings too.
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That's so cool! Emmi's just a companion... sometime she does community service work as a therapy dog
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Nothing wrong with that! Flatties make such wonderful companions. Smiley was a sweetheart and loved to snuggle too.
That's awesome! I love therapy dog work, and so did Diva. <3
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It's very sweet and heartwarming. Flatties are the best ^^
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Thanks. She was an amazing dog, and watching her owner loose her right after I lost her sister is just heart-wrenching.
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I can imagine the pain that both of you are going through. Poor puppy dog
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Yeah... It's never long enough, never ever, but it's just been hard because we are all so close and watching them get sick one at a time so close together is just eery.
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Tell me about it.
Yeah, Rye's breeder had a span of three weeks where one dog from a litter from about 12 years ago died each week for three weeks straight. That was extremely hard for her.
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Mhmm....
And ugh, that's just awful.
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Yeah. It was pretty bad.
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Thanks. She had such a great attitude in the show ring, always looked her best -which wasn't hard because she's a gorgeous dog. <3
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It's killing me... I know Lily's owner is hugging her tight these days. She told me she feels like Lily is "a ticking time-bomb". They never live long enough, but loosing them so close together is hard on us.. even if only one of them is our own dog, the three of us have always had strong connection to our dog's litter-mates too, especially Shayla's owner (the breeder of the litter -the first litter of flatties she ever bred).
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