'Tyler'
My special boy hadn't been very well for a while.
Having gone round in circles with various possibilities of what it was and not getting anywhere, we were finally given a most likely diagnosis.
Granulomatous Meningo Encephalomyelitis (GME)
He hadn't responded to treatment and as he had given up, I couldn't put him through any more.
He was always the one to nudge his head under my hand to be stroked, first in the queue to be groomed when he spied the brush, and as he knew not to jump up, would stand with his front paws on the fence or the wall next to me so he could be head height and lean against me for a proper cuddle.
He loved his cuddles, or just to be close and the year I took just him to Crufts with 10 week old James I was sat on his bench with James cuddled in resting his head on one arm and Tyler curled round behind me and resting his head on the other arm. A passer-by asked me which one was the baby! The answer of course is that they both were.
I was extremely proud of him that day when he won a good sized class (the first dog I owned to win a class at Crufts) but I was more pleased that he actually went well and looked like he was enjoying his day which wasn't always the case.
Predicted by some as a puppy to be my first homebred Champion (how ironic is that I made up Leia, my first homebred champion 3 days earlier?), he was sparingly shown as he found the whole thing quite boring and anything more than the customary round twice often resulted in that look which said he'd already seen it twice and it wasn't going anywhere interesting! He had a point!
He did, however enjoy our dabble into the world of Schutzhund training and had that not been cut short by the growth of our human family, who knows how far he'd have got. It was obviously a lot more fun than running round in circles.
I've shed more tears than I knew I had, and the hole he's left is immense, but the others here keep me busy and remind me that time goes on.
As hard as it was, I held him in my arms while he slipped away.
Noble and gentle til the end.
So loving and gentle and such a pleasure to live with, he will be very sadly missed.
Sleep well my beautiful boy xxx
