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What is it about Rottweilers that totally steals your
heart? Our Rottweiler, Raider,
who was actually my adult son's
constant companion, recently had to
be put to sleep because of cancer of
the spleen – apparently a very
common cancer in Rottweilers.
Raider was the heart of
our family. Except for my son,
he was definitely 'top dog."
He grew up with my grandchildren
whom he dearly loved and protected.
He greeted them all with a bevy of
kisses; and he had a way of wrapping
his body around them as though he
was hugging them. He would
stand, between any of the kids and a
parent who was attempting to
discipline the child, with a
constant low growl in his throat, as
though he was warning the parent to
not carry this discipline too far.
Raider would chase the
children around the swimming pool
while they were swimming; and he
never liked the adults in the pool
to play rough with the kids while
they were in the pool. He
preferred, actually, that the adults
stay out of the pool while there
were children in the pool.
Raider would sit by the
door anytime my son was gone from
the house and wait patiently – or
sometimes not so patiently – for
his return. He slept with him
at night. He followed him
everywhere. They were like
father and son. We thoroughly loved and
respected Raider as an integral part
of our family. He was our big
kid and we were his pack. He
was 125 pounds of pure kid. He
loved his toys even at 8 years of
age. His favorite was a
knotted piece of rope which he would
offer to all kids to play tug of war
with him. Or he would walk all
over the house with a squeaky toy in
his mouth while constantly squeaking
the toy.
Big,
bad dog, Raider was
not -- unless, he was forced
into 'protect' mode. He would
have given his life for any one of
us and we wish we could have given
ours to save him.
We will
never get used to the
Rottweiler-shaped hole in all of our hearts.
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Rottweiler
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