BLITZ

This is my favorite picture of Blitz, at about 7 months of age. It's my favorite for many reasons - one, because it captures the essence of his personality and two, it was taken after his second serious bout with dermatomyocitis and three, it's a special pic as after this, the disease began taking its toll and disfiguring him.

I was looking for a performance/conformation champion as my next Sheltie and when I saw Blitz as a puppy I felt he'd be that special dog. I was most certainly right on that count. Blitz came home also at 10 weeks of age but sadly we only got to enjoy two "normal puppy" weeks with him before the disease began manifesting itself. First it was a tiny blister on top of his head. When the scab fell off so did some hair. The hair loss continued and after many vet visits a biopsy was done and it was confirmed that he had Dermatomyocitis or DM. It's a devastating skin, muscle and blood disease found most commonly in Shelties, collies and their crosses. It cannot be tested for and Blitz's breeders had done everything right. It was just an extremely unfortunate case. Blitz's breeders of course offered to take him back but I decided to keep him and give him the best life possible.

When he felt well we trained and I discovered I sure made the right choice Obedience-wise. Blitz was an amazing learner and I didn't even have to work at attention training - he watched and pranced alongside of me for the sheer joy of it! By the time he was six months old he was trained through Utility. By 10 months he was feeling well enough so I entered him in Wildcard Novice. Kathy had also entered her amazing Buoy and we had a great time showing together: Buoy won with a 199 with Blitz right behind with a 198. The next day I discovered showing 2 days in a row was too much for Blitz: he could not concentrate and acted as if he hadn't been trained. We still won the class with a 191 (Kathy had not entered that day) but it was not the same dog. Immediately afterward we were back in the vet's office as the disease had flared up again. With a broken heart I had to accept the fact that Blitz could not endure the excitement of training and showing.

We've had our ups and downs since then but he is largely stabilized for how. He was stable long enough for me to enter him in Rally Novice this past year. He had no training whatsoever and qualified all 3 times. But even that took its toll and he developed a terrible lesion on his right rear leg that took several months to heal.

Blitz and I are still learning life lessons together. I am still dealing with the fact I cannot show the dog every obedience person dreams of having. Blitz cries like his heart is breaking if he sees me train Moto so I make sure he is crated or in another room if we are training around or in the house. Life certainly hasn't been fair to him but he truly is the happiest dog I have ever met. He awakens with a joy of simply being alive by running to my bed and giving me a series of swift kisses at 5:00 a.m. every morning as if to say "get up! It's morning and there's air and isn't that GREAT???" He gives me inspiration to enjoy this precious short time on earth we all have been given. He's defied the odds as he just turned 3. His specialist said he would probably only live to be 2. His quality of life is pretty good most of the time. We take things day by day as his health changes rapidly and he can go downhill very fast. He has lost muscle mass in his lower jaw and we may be looking at changing his diet to more of a soft diet if it becomes to difficult for him to eat.

As for when it's his time, I am leaving that up to Blitz. I believe he will tell me. For now he still has a spark in his eye. His internal flame isn't burning as brightly as it did in the past and he is very slowly slipping away from me, an inch at a time it seems. But as long as I awake to joyous Blitz kisses urging me to get up and experience the wonders of the day before me, it's another day Blitz stands firmly here at home.