Thanks everyone for your kind words. 
Yes, Shadow was a hard pet to groom. It would take me all day to get him completely free of his undercoat. Then most of the evening to thin and untangle his guard hair. During the summer, he usually needed shaving to be comfortable. His tail was the worst. It was always matted and had to be shaved down to skin. It looked so pathetic without it’s fur. 
For the last year of his life, he was almost naked as he was completely body shaved for his first surgery to remove mast cell tumors on his ears, neck and left shoulder. Then the GDV surgery required another shave. I asked God to please let him live till his fur grew back in, but it never got as full and beautiful as it was in these pictures. Still…he died with most of his dignity intact.
Still miss him so…it seems like it will never get any easier, although I know it will dull to an absent ache. I guess I don’t want to forget him, no matter how painful. It reminds me that I have a four-legged child so dear to me waiting on the other side, that someday my own passing will not hurt as much as I used to fear it would.
Pam, Jenna is doing rather well actually. She went to town with us again today, a great rider in the car. ALWAYS lets you know when she has to potty and waits till you stop to do it (unlike poor Kitty, who is now outside again and it seems fighting with another cat in the neighborhood, she had a new scratch on her shoulder today *shakes head* ) although it got hot in the car today and she was uncomfortable. But she was so tolerant. Our big boys would’ve been foaming at the mouth to get out and we’d get dragged down the road.
A few more, if you would be so kind as to indulge me….
Dusty, Shadow’s mate, mother of the pups, back in 200:

In 2004, 3 years before she passed away:

Our old cat, Fuzzy (a.k.a. Latte) when he was just a baby…so precious! He looked so much like my Griffy cat…

Fuzzy and Mew (Tooey) when she was a kitten. They were joined at the hip. (Looks like it, literally, in this pic!)

Headlock! (ack!)

He was her male mother. When we brought her home, he was like, “For ME??? Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou!”

Tooey and Fuzzy, singing opera…lolz…..


I was disappointed how dark these scans came out. I love digital photography so much better than the old 35 mm, which was how these were all taken.