AGGIE

Haus Humboldt SunSweet Aggie was born on May 11, 1996. We found out about her when a friend of ours called and told us she had a couple of puppies we might be interested in. By this time, we had 6 dogs already (3 of them Mastiffs), and we knew we shouldn’t try to take on another… However, when we drove out to visit with our friend (It’s amazing how these things happen, but a Mastiff-puppy sized dog crate just *happened* to fall into the back of the car…) it was all over. This charming, cute apricot puppy – 12 weeks old, and as friendly and happy a Mastiff as I had ever seen – came out to meet us. This time, it wasn’t my turn to feel the *click* of an instant bond; Tina had that experience. We both fell in love with Aggie, and we ended up bringing her home. Her previous owner had given her a puppy name we just couldn’t live with (Prunella…?!??) in recognition of her wrinkled up puppy face. We honored that thought in Aggie’s registered name with SunSweet in the middle, but to us she was always Aggie.

For any photo, click on the thumbnail for a larger image. 

Aggie went to puppy kindergarten class too, and did just fine there. Her happy, enthusiastic and outgoing personality won her a lot of fans there. She passed her Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test at 6 months of age, the earliest a puppy can take the test. We were worried that she would be too friendly with the stranger and his dog, but she did fine. Aggie did not enjoy the show ring. We took her to a couple of shows, but she made it clear she wasn’t happy there, so we didn’t worry about showing her. She was gorgeous, and no doubt could have finished a Championship if looks were all that mattered, but she had a weak rear (we later found, to nobody’s surprise, that Aggie was mildly dysplastic). We decided to keep her home and try the therapy angle. Aggie passed her Temperament Test, and then her TDI test. She participated some in our therapy work, but when we had to stop doing therapy for a time, Aggie retired from that, too – permanently, it turned out. One of the articles I have attached describes a visit when Aggie and Rion went.

Aggie’s life was mostly spent at home, but she didn’t mind that. She was famous (or infamous, perhaps?) for her flying French kisses – nobody ever did figure out how she got so good at timing the slurp for maximum effectiveness…

One day, about a year and a half ago, Tina felt a lump about the diameter of a nickel on the back of Aggie’s knee joint. After some more palpation, she found that several of the glands in Aggie’s throat were swollen, too. Off to the vet we went, to get the terrible news: Lymphosarcoma. In dogs, as in people, lymphatic cancer is a very aggressive, deadly disease. Aggie was diagnosed with lymphosarcoma on September 15, 2002.

There is no truly effective treatment for this type of cancer. We could have done chemotherapy on her, but that would only postpone the inevitable and prolong the pain… We did everything we could to keep her comfortable, but she steadily declined over the following weeks. Aggie died on November 29, 2002. She got to where she was too weak to stand up, and helping her caused her great pain, so when the time came, we took her to the vet’s office. Aggie was 6 and a half years old when she died.

Aggie a couple of months before the end: still beautiful, but feeling the effects of her illness

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