A Letter About Timber and Electric Toothbrush

I'd been waiting till Timber was happy to stand up again for her teeth brushing with the electric toothbrush because her enthusiasm showed more clearly just how eagerly she awaited the treat.  She just loved the electric toothbrush and it helped her teeth and gum health enormously!

To train her initially, I started slowly and always told her how pretty she was and what a good girl she was, and made it seem as special as if she were receiving a treat in the food category.  She would literally come running to have her teeth brushed with the buzzy toothbrush!

Sadly, we did put Timber down this weekend - geez, it never gets any easier.  She hasn't wanted to stand up much recently so I never did get those photos for you, so the ones attached are lying down and were taken a few months ago - as closely as we can determine with the vet, we believe some sort of abdominal tumor makes the most sense as the cause of her trouble - possibly cancerous - b ut clearly uncomfortable.

Sadly, we did put Timber down this weekend - geez, it never gets any easier.  She hasn't wanted to stand up much recently so I never did get those photos for you, so the ones attached are lying down and were taken a few months ago - as closely as we can determine with the vet, we believe some sort of abdominal tumor makes the most sense as the cause of her trouble - possibly cancerous - but clearly uncomfortable.

I wanted to thank you for always being there and available by phone.  Also, the 5 criteria by which to determine quality of life really helped to guide us.  As much as we wanted to do everything we could to keep her happy, we just kept reading and re-reading those criteria.  I printed them from the website and just kept them with me all day, for a few days, to go over them.

It's really hard to let her go.  She had a fabulously great life, as did the male dog we'd adopted at the same time who developed canine lymphoma after a few years.

Still, we all know we gave them life out of a box and as much love as a being can stand!  Thanks for introducing us to this great breed - we hope to be able to adopt two more after we heal a bit.  I'll call the kennels when I can speak a coherent sentence to give them the adoption number and notice of her death....

Many thanks - and I hope the photos may help other toward greater oral options for health

Wendy Leslie