Butch 1994-2001

Hi,
Butch was our first Springer. My youngest son bought him for $50.00 from someone that we now know would be called a backyard breeder. Springers were the rage with the teenagers at the time. Hunting was a lifestyle that most young men were very into in our community. He was adorable. My son trained him to hunt birds and Butch was not too bad at it. They went out to South Dakota several times hunting. Butch never strayed too far. Both Butch and my son would come back looking like they had been out on the town for a week. Butch would sleep for 3 days straight and walk around like an old man for a couple more days, but he loved it. Then my son got married and priorities change. Butch became our dog. He was not particularly fond of children, cats or other dogs. He would fetch anything for you and would run notes back and forth in the house for us. True to his backyard breeding he developed cancer of the anal gland. The cancer wrapped itself around one of his blood vessels and in doing so, it burst. With the cancer wrapped around it, Butch did not bleed too death, which is what would have happened if the cancer was not sealing the blood vessel. He had surgery and did fine for another two years. My husband is an EMT so he could administer all the drugs needed. In August of 2001, cancer again struck. More surgery, but this time Butch was not getting better. His kidneys shut down, which was another problem from the backyard breeding.
Hardest day of my husband's life was to take Butch to the Vet. Butch went to the rainbow bridge and is swimming in cool water and laying in green grass. His two favorite things.

The Dog Walker