“American Staffordshire Terrier”
Onyx was no ordinary dog. He spent his first 4+ yrs with a person or family who so obviously trained him well and treated him even better. Unfortunately for them, but VERY fortunately for us he somehow found himself lost. After being found wandering an In-and-Out Burger parking lot, he was taken to the local animal shelter and subsequently underwent a 3 week long series of tests determining if he was capable of being adopted out.
One crisp winters day, 3 days before Christmas of 2007, we decided that we were bored and wanted something to fill our day. I came up with the brilliant idea of going to the local shelter to look at dogs. We had ZERO intention of bringing home a dog, let alone an 80lb “Pitbull”. As we opened the door to a hallway housing 5 or so small and claustrophobic kennels, there stood Onyx who was the only non-barking dog in the row. He looked at us in such a way that said “if you want to take me or not, it’s no biggie. I’m fine either way”. We decided to take him to the fenced play area mainly just to get him out of his kennel for a while. Little did we realize, nor he, that would be the last time he’d step
another paw inside there.
Ever since that glorious and life changing day, Onyx brought us so much laughter, love, butt wiggles, walks, and overall amazing companionship that mere words could never fully describe.
His time with us came to an abrupt halt on June 29th 2010 when we had to make the most devastating but loving decision to help him leave this world. There was a cancerous tumor that had, unknowingly to us, been growing inside his intestine. It had inevitably grown so large that it finally ruptured his intestine which proceeded to leak intestinal fluids into his body. He was in so much pain but only let us know something was wrong by his lack of movement and inability/desire to eat. There was no way we were going to allow him to suffer in silence any further.
To say we miss him would be the largest understatement one could ever utter. God Bless you Onyx and may you bring hope and joy to the many souls entering the pearly gates.
With endless love and appreciation,
| Onyx |
| Tom & Andrea Smith |