Aiden's Page

Weight: 120
Breed: Great Dane
Age when diagnosed: 5

Tumors:

Aiden was the runt of her litter and hand-picked when my younger brother decided to get a dane. She was always a perfect lady and an absolute sweetheart. When she was 3, she came to live with us (due to a change in circumstances, my brother could no longer keep her).

It was her first experience as an inside dog. She was always well aware of her size and strove to make herself as small as possible. She would literally belly crawl from room to room and curl up in a tight ball. That was only for the first few weeks. When she realized that she could stay in regardless of how much space she took up, she relaxed alot.

She was the epitomè of "gentle giant". Taking food from your hand usually meant it falling on the floor because she wouldn't risk brushing your fingers with her teeth.

She never wolfed down food like some large dogs. Instead she would chew each piece thoroughly; she was always the last dog to finish with her meal. She would chew gum for about 10 minutes, spit it out and stare at it, pick it up and chew some more. Never would swallow it though; couldn't get it to the right consistency I guess.

She was terrified of any kind of bug. You could always tell when one was buzzing her because she'd stop in her tracks, look around wildly, and come flying back to hide behind you.

She was spayed at an early age and to my knowledge was never around puppies until I found Rascal. He's a black and tan coonhound who I found in the middle of nowhere as a tiny puppy. He adopted her as mom and she looked after him like he was her own.

In early Aug. '05, she started favoring her right front leg and no longer ran zoomies around the yard. After about 2 weeks, we went to the vet. He thought maybe it was sprained, gave her some pain meds, and we went home. Her limp got worse and a lump developed. Her vet was on a 2 week vacation at the time. Upon his return, he x-rayed and gave us the shocking news.

He referred us to a vet school a few hours away. They did biopsy (which I wouldn't repeat) which determined chondrosarcoma and scheduled the amp. She never awoke afterward due to some heart issues.

Danes are a huge presence in life and death; she'll never be forgotten.

Pictures