In March of 2005, I lost 2 dogs that were very dear to me. On the morning of March 13, I received the news that a dog that I had bred and planned on using in my breeding program, Dutch, had been killed in an accident. Two weeks later, I drove from a trial that I had attended straight to the animal emergency hospital to witness the death of my beloved Pico, my first agility dog and faithful companion. These pages are a tribute to those wonderful boys and the other Pikatti dogs that have passed on since then.
Unfortunately, the loss of Pico and Dutch was just the beginning of one of the most horrible years in my life. There were some high points like Ginger getting her MACH2 and ADCH, but many more sad things happened during the year. On June 29, Pico's son Little Joe passed away. He was only 3 weeks old. In August, Arthur who is Dutch's father, collapsed and almost died from heat exhaustion. (That was the vet's final diagnosis, but that seemed like an odd thing because Arthur was kept inside in air conditioning.) Then, on October 5, 2005, I was grooming Ruby, my 10-year old girl and I found a large lump on her belly that hadn't been there a day or two before. It was mammary cancer. About a month later, on November 9, 2005, a little puppy named Bea passed away. She was only 15 weeks old. As of the end of 2005, Arthur and Ruby are still here. Little Joe and Bea, the two innocent little puppies are gone...
At the end of November, 2006, Ruby had a reoccurrence of cancer. Unfortunately, this time it attacked her internal organs and was inoperable. I let her go in early December so that she would not have to suffer. At about the same time, I was informed of the death of one of Ruby's sons, Robbie. He was allowed to run out in the street and was hit by a car is what I was told. Robbie was only 4 years old and was a beautiful boy.
