goodbye Shammy and Miki

I was out with Fifi yesterday morning and Amy passed by in the car and stopped.

I asked her how the dogs were and she said they were in heaven.  They were both put to sleep at the same time.

I had noticed (last week?) that they had both cars in the garage and thought something was up since Shammy  had been taking up one half of the garage.

I asked her who made the decision and she said they had a family meeting and decided.

I was surprised that they decided to put Miki down too.  Shammy was understandable since she couldn't walk any more and just lay down all day on the pillow.

Miki, last I saw, could stand and walk a little.  But she would walk in circles because it looked like one leg was very weak.

I told her I'll miss them.  We'll all miss them.  And she said thank you.

I'll always remember them as the first dogs that Kimo met when he came to live with us.  Amy would take them out walking (later Harold would join her).  Kimo would go wild and I would take him out and force him to walk with them.  He remained wild at the beginning of the walk but then settled down after like five or ten minutes.

Then it would start all over again.

This went on for several weeks (or months), but slowly he got used to them.

Eventually I would just let him loose and he would run to Amy and Harold and they would pet him on the head.

Then later Hershey and Oliver joined the walk.

And sometimes I would bring the dogs to join Miki and Shammy at Amy's yard.

All was well (more or less), but one time [this was after Harold passed] Kimo was walking up to the entrance and Miki was walking down. As they crossed, Kimo growled and Miki went after him and pinned him down.  (Reina says she saw Kimo go after Shammy but I don't remember that.)

I pulled her off, but it was never the same after that.

Kimo hid in the garage for like two or three days.  And after that, whenever he saw Miki, he would go wild.

Sometimes, I would take him out and force him to walk with them.  And he would be OK after a while if he walked behind them.  But I never quite got him to stop reacting the first time he saw them.

Then in recent years, Miki and Shammy slowed up.  Shammy especially was wobbly on her walk.

Sometimes I would would walk Fifi behind Shammy when she was slow and she would speed up.  But I guess Amy didn't like that idea and asked me not to do it later.

Then last year, Shammy couldn't walk any more.  And Miki, who was always the strong one, noticeably slowed up too.  And we saw them less frequently.

I'll miss them.  R.I.P.