itter

With both of us having grown up around dogs, we wanted dogs at our first opportunity. We were not, however, going to subject our dogs to living in a townhouse as we wanted real dogs (discussion of "real" dogs versus "wind-up toys" can be taken to e-mail). Shortly after we bought our first single family house in 1987, we got Kaiser. We got Mitter (short for Mitternacht -- German for "midnight") to keep him company. She is truly his sister, having been born 13 months after he was (May 31, 1988) to the same parents.

Mitter was always the worry-wart of the family. If someone cried out in pain (or just cried), Mitter was there to see what was wrong and to try and fix it. Some people were worried when we brought our (two legged) daughter home from the hospital to see how those Dobermans would react to her and how they would treat her. Mitter was the ultimate in nanny dogs. If Amanda went down for a nap while Mitter was outside, Mitter would check the house for her, getting more panicked every time she checked a room and didn't find her. Finally, we would have to take her into the nursery, lift the bumper, and show her that "her" baby was OK. It didn't take long before she would do this herself.

Our lives changed forever on April 28, 1998 when Mitter was diagnosed as diabetic. She was started on two doses of insulin a day. After what seemed like forever, she was stabilized and our routine of feeding and "shooting the dog" on a set schedule was soon established. Mitter dealt with the diabetes well, not developing the inevitible cataracts until early 2001. Shortly after Christmas time, she began experiencing runny nose and eye problems. During her course of treatment with Baytril, her appetite dwindled and remained low after the treatment period ended. We were finally able to get her to eat a good meal the evening of February 25^th, but I made a vet appointment for the next day anyway. One of our topics of discussion was going to be "Is it time?". Mitter answered our question for us. The next afternoon, she sunned herself on the back deck for a while, then she came in the house, convulsed, and dropped dead. Another great one passed to The Rainbow Bridge on February 26^th, 2001.