Dakota's Story

"Hi, my name is Dakota. I was a 7 year old Shiloh Shepherd and I lived with my Mom and Dad, Bernadette and Bob Allen, in Ohio, but now I am back on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

I used to be a therapy dog and visited people in the hospital (but that's another story for another day). This is me in late November of 2007, shortly after the nice doctors at Ohio State Veterinary Hospital removed my leg that hurt me for the past month or so. I had Osteosarcoma in the left front leg.

I was the most favorite patient that Dr. McMahon had in the hospital at that time. Before my operation, she would let me follow her around as she worked and I would lay at her feet and make her laugh. She says that I was a real trooper because when she would check my leg or the awful sores in my mouth, I would let her with no problems and wouldn't even complain about any of it.

Coming Home to My Pack

After they removed my leg, I was up walking the very next day. Dr. McMahon kept in close touch with my Mom and Dad and told them that afternoon that I had even been outside to, well you know what we do outside. This was on a Friday, on Saturday, Dr. McMahon called Mom and Dad to say that I was doing so well that the staff at the hospital had to run to keep up with me and I could go home (yeah!) as soon as they could come in to get me. The drive for Mom and Dad was about 3-4 hours but I was excited just to
go home.

When I got home I found that Dad had built a ramp for me to get into the house and boy were my brothers and sisters ever excited to see me. I had 2 brothers, both Shiloh Shepherds, and 3 sisters (2 Shilohs and a Beagle/Lab mix ).

I was getting along great until those awful sores returned to my mouth. This was during my chemo therapy and my doctor (Dr. Seman) tried all kinds of things to get rid of them. Dr. Seman called Ohio State to get their help and they took me off of almost all of the antibiotics and put me on Prednisone. This worked great! No more pain from those awful sores.

Extra Good Care, Through Thick and Thin

I went along great until about 3 months ago, I got a pressure sore on my front elbow. Boy did it hurt, but I didn't let anyone know how bad. Mom and Dad took me to see Dr. Seman every day so her staff could take extra good care of me and give me lots of love and praise. The pressure sore almost went away but it opened up again so I had to have another operation to close the sore. I really got extra good care after that.

The great people at Dr. Seman's office would wash my leg every day and even put some comfortable pads on my elbow so it wouldn't hurt so bad. This worked so well that they let my Dad start to change my dressings every other day. But, as these things sometimes go, the darn sore opened back up no matter how much padding was on it. My Mom and Dad even ordered me a really cool vest with some protection on the leg from the nice people at Dogleggs just to see if that would stop the sore.

Unfortunately nothing worked and I even started getting more of the pressure sores on my back foot, back hip, and front shoulder. After all of this, Mom and Dad took me to see a specialist and he said that it would be a very long treatment process but there were no guarantees of success. I was getting very weak by now because there was an infection all in my body.

Thank You for Your Courage, Mom and Dad

Dr. Seman did X-ray's all during my treatments to make sure that the nasty cancer didn't come back and there was no indication that it did. Mom and Dad made the tough decision that I was in too much pain and too weak to put me through any more treatments (Thanks Mom and Dad!).

I went to visit a canine niece who had Lymphoma and I got around OK but I was still very weak. This was Monday 6-9-08 and that day my niece went back across the Rainbow Bridge. I went home with Mom and Dad but by the next morning, I was so weak that I couldn't even lift my head.

Needless to say, Mom and Dad were devastated. I went for one last visit to Dr. Seman on that Tuesday 6-10-08 and she helped me go back across the Rainbow Bridge. I told my Mom that I could come back to her someday, so she shouldn't cry too much for me. I told Mom and Dad that God had a special job for me in Heaven and needed just the right Angel Dog to help another Angel to get through a rough time. Mom and Dad, I will be there when all of you come to Heaven and I will be whole again and very happy to greet you with a wag and a kiss."

As Dakota so eloquently stated, he went back across the rainbow bridge last Tuesday. I regret that I didn't know about this site until after we had lost our beloved Dakota. From looking at some of the postings, I believe that we could have learned a great deal about living with tripe's dogs, I know that we would have enjoyed getting to know everyone across this Great Nation as we all traveled the same rode together. I hope God blesses all of you and your Tripawds companions.