This is a Special Eulogy for My Dog SHADOW Our family moved into the country in 1994 and shortly after that a man that my wife (Toshia) worked with (Dana Morgan) said that there was something that he wanted to give us and when we went to his house we found his whole kitchen floor covered with newspaper and covering the newspaper was two Beautiful Black Labrador Retrievers and 13 tiny little ones running all over the floor. I was skeptical about getting a dog but my wife picked out the scrawniest little one in the bunch and we named him “SHADOW”.
Needless to say, “SHADOW” and I became very attached in a very short time. Anytime I went in the car, I had a buddy that was wanting to go with me and of course I took him and he became My dog and MY buddy. He would usually sit in my lap while I was driving or sit in the other seat with his head out the window taking in all the fresh air.
Of course as time went by he became far too big to sit in my lap and he would often wonder WHY he couldn’t be there because as far as he was concerned, that is where he should be.
I always held him and told him that we were Good Buddies and whenever we had to leave him at home I would tell him to “watch the house” for us and keep all of the ‘Bad Guys” away and if any bad guys came around to just “Bite Their Legs Off”!
Over the years “SHADOW” had a problem where he couldn’t See very good and he was walking around bumping into other things. Naturally, we became very concerned and we took him to the Vet Hospital at Cornell University to have his eyes checked and were told that he had cataracts on both eyes but they could be removed. We had his cataracts removed and brought him home and he could see just
as well as he ever did!
Later on in his life we were told by our Vet that he was a diabetic and that we had to stop giving him normal breaded treats (which between my wife, two sons and myself he got far to much) and confine his treats to nothing but dried chicken or dried turkey. At this point my wife went out and bought a big turkey and cooked it and dried it in her food drier and made a bunch of treats for him and with the leftovers she cooked down and made extra food for him. We were also told by his vet to give him 23 units of Humulin-N insulin by syringe about 8 in
the morning and again, 8 at night..
During the time “SHADOW” was with us I would almost always find him at my bedroom door when I woke up in the morning and as soon as I came out he would start wagging his tail and banging it up against the bedroom door. I was always afraid that we were going to wake up my wife but I would always greet him with a hug and ask him if he would like to go outside first or eat first. Usually, he almost always went outside first. Any time he wanted to come back inside he had this special little whimpering bark to let me know and if I didn’t answer the door on the first bark he would let out a very loud bark that seemingly could be heard for miles away and of course someone in the
house would let him in.
Then finally, on the night of Monday, October 24th he began to look like he wasn’t feeling to well and so both I and my wife decided we would take him to the vet the next morning but later on in the evening (about 1 in the morning he went into diabetic shock and after giving him some kayo Syrup to try to bring his sugar level back up he seemed to be a lot better and I went to bed and prayed a special prayer that GOD would make him better. I told my wife that if he got any worse, to wake me up. I woke up about 5 am and my wife said that he was getting much worse. (She had been up all night with him to watch over him.)
The vet office didn’t open until 8:30 but we both put him in the car and took him to his vet. Fortunately they opened the office early and helped us take him inside. We laid him on a blanket and put a pillow under his head and covered him with another blanket. The vet said that she would have to run some blood test on him to get his exact sugar level and to check back in an hour. My wife and I went out and had a cup of coffee and were back at the vet’s office in about 50 minutes. I went inside but my wife Toshia didn’t want to and she waited in the car. After a few minutes the tests came back and I was told that all of his major organs were failing and it was just a matter of time—-She asked me what I wanted to do and I went back out to the car to tell my wife the news and asked for her opinion, Should we have him PUT TO SLEEP or not? She said that it was MY decision! (We were both crying.) At this point we both went back into the office and was told that we could get a second opinion if we wanted to. My wife asked that IF a doctor was successful in getting the proper fluids back up again, would he be ok? At this point our vet just shook her head.
They brought him back out so that we could spend some time alone with him but it was evident that he was almost gone because he had again gone in to constant convulsions. It looked like he was suffering so much and we knew he could not get better. Neither of us could keep our eyes dry and I was on the floor with him praying for him. I also told him that I would “keep all the bad guys away for him from now on” and that he no longer had to worry about that. At this point I signed the paper and the vet injected him with that “special needle” and all of a sudden at 10:45 A.M. the convulsions stopped and he relaxed. I asked the vet “HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE”? And she said that it was “ALREADY OVER !!)
Toshia and I are back home now and home is just not the same. His food and water dishes are still here; His special corner still has his bed and pillow in it. Everything is still the same except for one thing; “SHADOW” is not here any more!! Tosh and I gave him a good brushing the day before and Tosh got a small plastic bag and collected all the hair that we had thrown away and sealed it in the bag and we just held the bag, his collar, and each other and cried.
“SHADOW” will still always be with us because we are having him cremated and we will put his remains just above his corner where he slept next to the “BABY JESUS” and I know that when I die I’ll meet him again at the RAINBOW BRIDGE and we can cross over and we will always be TOGETHER.
| Jim & Toshia Napier |