Sire: W.T.Ch Oberan Caraig (Craig) C.D.Ex, U.D.Ex W.D.Ex, T.D.Ex, Obedience Ch 'C', Senior Agility Dog.
Dam: Genabacab Expression of Oberan (Jace)
Sky didn't die of old age like all the others. She got cancer.
Early in2004, Sky developed a bit of a limp, which I put down to a touch of arthritis. Then she developed a couple of lumps on her underside, which grew fast, and soon there were several of them. The vet assumed mammary tumours, and it was arranged for Sky to have an operation called a "mammary strip" to remove them. The x-ray showed her lungs were clear - there was hope!
It was a massive operation, as you see....
Sky coped well, and didn't even nibble at her stitches. However, the lab report wasn't too hopeful. They weren't mammary tumours after all, but malignant cancer cells from adjacent tissue were found, and it was in the lymph node. The report concluded that it appeared to them to be a rather nasty dog cancer called malignant histiocytosis.
But Sky seemed well and happy in herself, so it was a case of letting her enjoy whatever time she had left. The stitches came out after 10 days, (without a murmur of protest from Sky as she anxiously lay upside down on the vet's table) and immediately more lumps started appearing. But they still didn't seem to bother her at all.
Towards the end of April, the limp suddenly got worse. My friend and I, (who walk our dogs together,) noticed that whenever we stopped to talk to anyone, Sky would lie down, and that she tired easily. She wasn't sleeping well, I could hear her huffing and puffing, and shifting about. She wasn't putting any weight on one foreleg, and now the shoulder appeared to be pushed out. Closer inspection confirmed she seemed to have a huge lump coming up underneath the shoulder-blade.
My vet confirmed that it was the cancer, and that he couldn't operate up under the shoulder, it was far too narrow. So it was time to say goodbye to my dear tactile wonderful loving Sky. I held her and talked to her as the light went out in her eyes, and she grew heavy in my arms. A couple of deep breaths and she was gone. As I buried my face in her soft fur for the last time, I knew that this was inevitable, it was the only option, but at the same time I felt such a deep painful sense of loss.
I still miss her. Okay, she was noisy, excitable, and if she'd been human she'd have been a traffic warden... she had that sort of personality. But not only was she an incredible Agility performer, she was at heart the kindest and most trusting of dogs, I could rely on her absolutely never to use her teeth on a human. She was only 9½.
I'm sure when she crossed the Rainbow Bridge, she missed the contact!
If tears could build a stairway,
and memories a lane,
We would walk right up to heaven,
and bring you home again.
