Today I had to do something that completely shut me down. I had to put down the best friend in my life and was literally a child of mine. It wasn’t a question of resources, money or otherwise, it was one of those things that happen in life that no one wants to hear. When the situation presents itself it’s so very painful.

Back in 2003 where were presented with the opportunity of getting a Rottweiler pup with full AKC papers for free. As a family we accepted this and named such pup Argus. He was a handful, I mean that literally as he fit into my hand.

I can still remember that I was working third shift at the time and one day during the evening I was awoken to having a very cold puppy shoved next to me under the covers. My daughter had taken Argus and “washed” him in to outdoor pool in late October when the water temp wash like 40 degrees. As we lay there, I heating him up and him shivering my wife and I thought that there was no way the hypothermia would pass. It did.

About a year later he somehow fractured his shoulder but being still a puppy he didn’t complain much and it appeared to set itself. Some strange seeping lesions set in though. I can remember that a lump appeared on his chest. A trip to the vet on a Friday produced nothing as the vet took a culture of the suspected spot. Nothing found.

Two days later the spot grew so fast that on the following Monday morning the lump broke through the skin and blood and puss where everywhere. Frantic phone calls to the vet and they seen me immediately. I had to leave him there for the day. When I picked him up the vet said that they didn’t even get a chance to open the wound as when they were shaving him for surgery the wound opened up even more. When I picked him up and for the next three weeks it was change blood and puss soaked bandages.

In 2005 my family and I moved to Florida. Argus still had seeping lesions on his chest that couldn’t be cured. We did go to the vet’s down here but the presentation was unusual. It could have been a foreign body in him or an unusual case of his type of thing. After several treatments of different anti-botics nothing seemed to help.

Since 2005 all of use have been dealing with Argus’ lesions but he has been very important in our lives. On countless occasions he has notified us late at night something is not right (just being a watchdog), he makes all of feel safe as I work mostly nights, he plays catch with me, and every morning and as I have my coffee he visits me to get a morning petting.

About a month ago a small lump developed on what I will call his foreskin (although the vet said something that began with a “p”). It was decided at the time to go with heavy anti-biotics for an extended amount of time for see if the lesions (now 2 in total) and the lump would go away. Happily the lesions did go mostly away and the anti-biotics were working for these.

A month ago we did take cultures of the lump on the foreskin but the results weren’t “rushed” so we didn’t really know what we were dealing with. A week ago the small lump grew alarmingly fast and what was the size of a dime is now the size of three grapes (think pea pod) and spreading across his abdomen.

Today was supposed to be a check-up on the medication. Yesterday I had to change that.

Today I held my best friend and a child of mine while the fatal injection was given.

In Memory Of
Argus
04-07-2007

I LOVE YOU!!