Rudy, July 10, 1999 - Feb 25, 2012

Rudy, the older and larger of our 2 Italian Greyhounds passed on Feb 25. Like his adopted younger brother who died 2 years earlier, Rudy had absolutely no complaints as his body wore out from various maladys. Rudy actually met the lower end range of life expectancy for the Italian Greyhound breed. It may have had something to do with the fact that I prepare fresh human food for him every day since Speedo died. I'll never know. It was grilled chick breast in 2010, then deli meats, hot dogs, you name it in 2011, until the end. He was spoiled to the core and he knew it. Even so, he wouldn't eat anything the last three days of his life. He just looked blankly at us and could only stumble around when he walked. But he never abandoned his house training and continued to go outside to perform his various doggy duties.

On the night of the 25th, after days without food and the only water was what I was able to squirt in his mouth, he just laid in his bed and looked blankly at us. I noticed his body was a few degrees colder than normal and sensed that there was too much suffering. I dripped a vet-prescribed .5cc of doggy Valium into his mouth so he could relax the labored breathing. Within one half hour, his breathing unexpectedly stopped altogether. I was devastated. Although the family had been saying goodbye to Rudy for a few weeks, I was the only one home at the time so Cathie, Dylan and Maddie were not able to be with him when he died. We all miss him.