Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I haven't been on these boards in a while but was so touch to come back and still see my girl as the Akita representing the open explanination of the beloved Akita breed. I'm sorry to say that we lost our Shelby Feb 13 2007. She was quite the exceptional dog and we think of her daily and miss her alot.

Shelby will never be replaced but she is cherished in alot of wonderful memories. We love this breed so much we are hoping to have another Akita join our family in the next couple of months.

Love, Hug & many Kisses to our beloved pets with the many years of joy they bring to our homes

Rest in Peace Shelby!

I haven't been on these boards in a while but was so touch to come back and still see my girl as the Akita representing the open explanination of the beloved Akita breed. I'm sorry to say that we lost our Shelby Feb 13 2007. She was quite the exceptional dog and we think of her daily and miss her alot.
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>>Shelby will never be replaced but she is cherished in alot of wonderful memories. We love this breed so much we are hoping to have another Akita join our family in the next couple of months.
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>>Love, Hug & many Kisses to our beloved pets with the many years of joy they bring to our homes
>>
>>Rest in Peace Shelby!

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss of Shelby. She will remain forever in your heart. You can never replace Shelby but getting another Akita will be a tribute to Shelby. Hope you'll come back and share your new pup with us.

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Mary Lou & Katie

Hi Cheri, it has been a long time hasn't it? It was with much sadness that I had read of the passing of Shelby. I had thought of the both of you from time to time passing through the boards. It's never easy losing a faithful friend, a member of the family if you will. You never know when a memory has been made and I'm sure you'll have many wonderful memories of Shelby to look back on. I am happy to read that you may be getting another Akita in the near future and I hope you come back and share the experience with us. If it's okay with you I'm sure the picture of Shelby can remain as the representative of this magnificent breed and serve as a small tribute to her memory. Again I am very sorry for your loss.
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Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

Thanks so much Bob & MaryLou,
I would be very pleased to see Shelby's photo remain as long as the boards will keep her, its a wonderful tribute and honor to have her here.

I have thought of many folks I have meet over the years on these boards and its always a pleasure to drop back in and be remembered from our conversations and the stories we've shared about our furbabies.

Our Shelby Jan07 with our rescue pup Hailey that we adopted (photo below). They shared a wonderful bond that I feel a connection through our Hailey to Shelby.

We are looking forward to our new addition and I will definitely look forward to sharing with you. The new pups were born last week so if everything goes well we should have our Akita in May.

Thanks Again for you're kind words & support.
Bob how are you're Shiba Inu's doing these day? You must share photo's someday.

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Cheri,Lily,Lucy,Hailey & Our Angel Shelby who is missed and thought of daily!

Cheri you're welcome and congrats on Hailey your rescue pup! That is a cute picture. I'm sure you can't wait for May to get here and now neither can we! lol

The Shibas are doing okay with the exception of Beni. I have numerous posts over on the Shiba board. Beni was diagnosed with having primary glaucoma back in late August. He had already lost vision in his right eye before I recognized the problem. He has been seeing the opthalmologists at Cornell since that time and in December he had an operation to remove the contents of the eye and have a silicone ball inserted. Now the left eye is spiking in pressure and on Monday I'm taking him back down to Cornell to have a glaucoma valve inserted in that eye. It's not cure, just a temporary fix. Unless the miracle I keep praying for doesn't happen, he will most likely be blind by the end of the year. Anyway, it's great to see you here again and I hope you do continue to stop by. A couple of stories on how you came to rescue Hailey comes to mind!
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Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

Bob I'm sorry to hear about Benji's eyes. I hope the procedure monday helps out. Blindness is tough actually that was the final ailment that just took our Shelby too far. She suddenly went totally blind. Of course I had her in to the vets numerous occasions questioning the appearence of her eye and even changed vets. But two vets assured me it was her aging being 10 1/2 years old. Well after the total blindness & suddenly she was to frightened to even move around or eat. She would sleep 90% of the day and having other medical challenges in her hips & joints it was just too much.

I have been an active volunteer with a local rescue group for almost 4 years now and last year we fostered over 30 dogs. Hailey came to us with her brother from Tennessee, the family that rescued them actually rescued 3 of the same litter. They decided to keep one of the 3. They were all found on railroad tracks and brought back to Michigan. When I took 2 in at 4 weeks of age. After 4 weeks of fostering and time to adopt them out once they were 8 weeks old we decided to adopt Hailey. And its been wonderful having her with us since then. She is in her second obedience class now and learning quickly. We plan on completing the third where hopefully she will earn her CGC Canine Good Citizen Cert. We are hoping to work with Hailey in a visiting therapy program and visit hospitals & nursing home etc. Where ever the program takes us. I'm planning to train and work with our new Akita also to hopefully visit with both. Being working dogs its great excersize for them & excellent on socializing skills, fun too right!

I will have to go and check out the Shiba boards again.
How many Shiba's do you have now?

Best Wishes monday with Benji we will be thinking of you both!
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Cheri,Lily,Lucy,Hailey & Our Angel Shelby who is missed and thought of daily!

Cheri thanks I hope so too. Beni just turned 9 in February and I don't really know what will happen when the time comes and he is totally blind. I'm doing my reading and research now to help me out. I'm thinking Beni will probably handle it better than I am going to. That is a shame that Shelby had lost her sight as well as having the other problems she had. I can't say for sure what happened to her, but if it was glaucoma it is called the silent theif since it robs dogs of their site and most owners won't be able to see any signs until the dog has already lost it's sight. In my case though it was already to late, I noticed a change in Beni's eyes and called my vet right away. For 2½ weeks I had Beni going there... she has been my vet for 20 years, yet I truly feel she dropped the ball this time. When he first saw her she said he could still see in both eyes. I kept asking if it was glaucoma and she kept telling me it wasn't. I asked if she did pressure tests and she said she only had an old style Shiotz tonometer and was hesitant to use it. I kept asking if Beni should go to Cornell. I would go home after the visits and pound my head against the wall because she was adamant it wasn't glaucoma and yet everything I saw and read told me it was. Finally I had had enough and took Beni to Cornell, it was primary glaucoma. I was sick to my stomach for not taking him there sooner even though the opthalmologists there were impressed that I caught the signs when I did. It was just a small comfort. Anyway things are happening faster than I had hoped they would.

That's fantastic that you have been volunteering with a local rescue group and even better that you made the decision to adopt Hailey. Good luck with her on her continuing quest towards CGC! I can understand the needs for Akitas to have plenty of excerise and socialization. I think it's wonderful what you are doing.

I still have the three Shibas, Keiko, Toshi and Beni. I would have a couple more but there is someone else in the house to answer to...lol!

If you go to the Shiba forum I think you could do a search ny me user name Shboom to find any posts I had placed about Beni. I'll be placing updates over there for the next several days and hope to catch you over here as well.
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Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

I'm so sorry to read this post. Shelby will be missed. I'm so sorry for your loss.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles