Date of Birth: Approx. 1992-3
Date of passing: June 4th, 1999
Loved and extremely missed by the Bacalao family.
We had recently lost a family dog who had lived with us for 11 years. He was a beagle mix. It was a hard grieving process but we decided the best way to heal was to find another dog. We went to all the animal shelters but found nothing. But right when we were leaving the lady that was working there came to us and said, "We've just received a beagle. He is between 1 and 2 years old. When we saw him we knew that he was sent to us from our old dog. He was a beagle just like him, only a pure-bread. He looked very similar to our old dog. When I saw him I knew right then and there that he was to be with us. When I went back to take a last look at him I saw that he was "shredding" the newspapers that he had in his crate. That's when I knew that the perfect name for him would be Shred.
Shred was the best dog in the world. He loved everyone and everything. He was especially great with children. He hardly ever growled or barked and when he did, it was only in self defense or because he saw something at night that scared him. Those were very rare. He never bit anyone. He was such a big sweet-heart.
He was always relatively healthy, at least in my eyes. He was only overweight. He was a little fat but I didn't think he was overly obese. His walks were normal length but it did tire him out. His only health problem known to me was that he had epilepsy. He had seizures very rarely. I would say about once every 9-12 months. When he did get seizures however they were very violent. He would shake violently. I had to take him outside so that he wouldn't hit his head against anything in the house. After it was over he would go and hide in a bush until he felt well enough to come back inside. The last time he had a seizure he could feal it coming.
The morning of the day of his passing, Shred was fine. He was his normal self. During the afternoon he felt great too. He was his same old self. Right before I had to leave for a party though he was feeling a little sick. I thought it was indigestion. When I came back from the party, around 11 o'clock. I called his name. No answer. When I found him it was a horrible sight. He had collapsed under the dinning room table. When I took him to the vet she said that Shred died of Cardiac Myopathy. I don't know what that is but I suspect it means that his heart just stopped. The only comfort I can have is the knowledge that Shred died painlessly.
Shred, I miss you so much and so does the rest of our family. Thank you for giving us so many hours of joy with you.