Thanks guys! I had intended to post something sooner, but Ken thanks for beating me to it! Capt. Chuck called me Wed. morning on his way up to the Derby wanting to know what was the best Bourbon to buy, so he was the first to know. Shadow was a remarkable dog indeed and made it to several CSC gatherings, including Key Largo, Peanut Island, and the special "Gilley Gathering" at Area 442! She loved going out in the boat, so I put together a
brief slideshow with pictures from some of our boat trips. Each picture has a caption but you might have to move cursor over the picture for it to bring it up. Sometimes the captions are blocked by damn pop-up ads, so you might have to just scroll thru the pictures manually if that happens. (If anyone knows of a better photo-hosting site than Photobucket, please let me know - I'm fed up with the user-hostile changes they've made to it!)
As a Greyhound/Lab mix, Shadow was a strong swimmer and had web feet (Greyhounds have web feet just like Labs . . . they were bred by the Egyptians for running in the sand and chasing rabbits, etc.). However with her very lean and muscular greyhound build and short hair she didn't float too well, so I made her wear a life jacket most of the time on the boat. Otherwise her nose, eyes and tail were about all you'd see above water, and she had jumped out of the boat a couple times to get to sand bars, etc.!
Although Shadow was nearly 14 1/2 years old, (an unusually long life for a big 70 lb dog) our vet thought she was in great health for her age with no hip or joint problems, but our nightly walks had become shorter and slower in the last year or so, with frequent stops to check "pee-mail"! Just a couple of nights earlier, we had met our neighbor who she loved and always greeted with much whining and "talking", and we walked for over a mile with his two highly trained black Lab hunting dogs with no problems. However she had been sleeping in longer each morning and taking longer naps, kinda like some old geezers I know! We've had a couple of dogs which got sick that we had to put to sleep. My dad was a vet; that had to have been one of his toughest jobs and it would have been VERY hard to do with her. However she was considerate enough to spare us from a traumatic euthanasia decision by living a full and active life right to the end, passing away peacefully in her sleep . . . we humans should be so lucky! She was by far the most loyal and affectionate dog we've ever had; we named her Shadow because from the day we brought her home, she'd follow me around wherever I went, like my little black shadow! If I went out to run an errand and didn't take her along (which I didn't in hot weather), she'd lie down on the rug by the front door and stay there till I got home! Once I got home, she'd get up, go out the dog door into the back yard, and lie in the sun - guess the warmth probably felt good to old joints that were probably getting a bit creaky!
I believe a man hasn't lived a truly fulfilling life if he has not been fortunate enough to enjoy the unconditional love and loyalty of a good dog! Shadow was a gentle soul that never met a person she didn't want to greet, coax into a head rub, (or share any food they had!), and she never met a dog or cat she didn’t want to befriend or play with. Denny