Date of Death:
We adopted Shep on 12/22/13 just before Christmas, the first and only dog my wife and I have adopted together. From day 1 we changed his name to Ozil and over time he developed a nickname that was eventually shortened to just "D". In the early part of his life, Ozil and I would go on adventures - long walks through the woods behind my neighborhood, across frozen streams, over railroad tracks and all around my relatively small neighborhood. Ozil was always mindful of me and so I often walked him with no leash. He would chase deer, or cats, or foxes, anything he saw. Because we walked in the early morning it would often lead to me quietly tracking him down in the dark and scolding him. Ozil and I went to obedience school in his first year and developed a tight bond. Despite the training, Ozil still did what he wanted and would wait until we left the house to go into rooms he was otherwise not allowed. At one point we taught him how to open doors with his paws. That only emboldened him further an resulted in a lot of scratched up door. We eventually had to unteach him that. He was mostly an unserious goofball.
We've lived in the same house since his adoption and Ozil was the unofficial king of the neighborhood. He was loud and very confident, but also sweet and quite the looker. In his early days, he got a compliment from a stranger almost every time we walked (in the daylight). The cats knew him well and took off hiding when they saw him coming down the street. He spent his time indoors sitting at the front door barking at anything that passed by.
He had a good life, getting 2 walks a day, eating good food, good treats, and often jumping in the car with us to go anywhere it was reasonable. A couple years ago he was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy and slowly began losing his mobility. But it didn't stop us from walking completely, just shorter and slower. Earlier this year, he started having troubles and took a turn in August and did not recover. Nothing was confirmed, but the vet believed he had pervasive cancer throughout his bowels that took him down just days before his 12th birthday. He is missed and will be for a while.
