Post by badgolfermanHad to put her down this morning.
https://ibb.co/cQcnp8X
Kenna grew up as a bait dog, used by dog fighters to train their prized
dogs. We found her in 2012 at an abused dog shelter in Smithfield, VA.
The place where the dogs were kept was Michael Vick's old house where
dog fights took place. After he was caught and convicted running a dog
fighting scheme, he donated his house to dog shelters. My wife and two
children went to the house where all the dogs were running free and sat
there to see who would come to us. Kenna was the shyest of all them so
she came last, but she stayed the longest. She picked us. The shelter
people came to our house a few days later to check out her new place
before they turned her over to us. They told us she was probably 2-3
years old at that time.
Kenna was a meek and obedient dog and really only took to my wife and
youngest son. She was very leery of me and it took several years
before she warmed up to me, despite me being her primary caregiver. We
didn't hear her ever bark until maybe 5-6 years later when she started
barking at the doorbell. It's not like she hadn't heard it before.
She did not like black people at first and even growled at a black
woman who came into our house for an AA party once. If yard workers in
the neighborhood were black, she would look like she was ready to
attack them. She finally warmed up to them when one of my sponsees
would come over for book study and she would crawl up into his lap.
Her favorite activities were the two walks she got daily and lyng on
the front porch watching cars go by. She never ran away and routinely
stayed out there alone. She didn't like other dogs since she was half
pit bull, but she tolerated my son's Husky since he was bigger than her.
Her health deterioted noticeably about a year or two ago. Her hearing
and eyesight became quite bad. She started losing control of her
bladder and bowels inside the house or car. We were forced to protect
the house by making her wear diapers. Her hind legs became so bad she
constantly fell down and couldn't get up. I had to carry her up the
four steps when she went outside to pee or for walks. Then the bladder
infections began and lasted at least 4-5 bouts. The vet suspected a
tumor but wanted to take expensive imaging pictures. We decided it
wasn't worth it at her age of fifteen.
My younger son from Charlottesville came down to join me and his older
brother this morning at the vet. Mom didn't go. I will spare you the
details of the euthanasia since all of you have probably already
experienced that.
She was a good dog. They say all dogs go to Heaven. I'm sure that's
where her spirit is now.