My Best Dog in the World

Mandy, my puppy since I was in the 6th grade, was put to sleep today. She was awesome, and I have felt bad ever since I started my own life by going to college. A German Shepard/Chow mix, we rescued her from Table Mountain Animal Shelter as a puppy. She was more than 12 years old.

I remember begging my parents for a dog since I was in the 3rd grade. My mom finally gave in after I printed off 50 pictures of different breeds, wrote names on the paper, and then pasted them on my bedroom wall while talking to them all daily. I feel bad I couldn't be there for her, but that would have been very hard. I only hope my parents are doing alright. When I left for Utah, she was relatively healthy looking for her age. However, over the summer, her stomach bloated really bad, and while she recovered, it was all downhill. The last couple of times I saw her, she looked emaciated, every bone showing, she couldn't stand up (because as a German Shepard, she inherited a degenerative disease where her spinal cord lost all feeling towards her rear), and since she couldn't feel anything, she licked all the fur off of her tail until it looked raw. Let's hope our other dog, Scout, can recover. When Mandy was in the hospital for the stomach bloating, Scout did not eat anything. Doggy heaven? In honor of my dog.