Anthony of Filly's Hill

04.04.2005 - 03.12.2012  P776

Aik vom Altenberghof x Final-Filly of Lady Land

black and white

Show: Austrian Junior Champion, Austrian Champion, Veteran Champion, 

Best of Breed, placings in the ring of honour at international shows. 

Best Veteran in Show Bundessieger Tulln, World Veteran Winner

Austrian Show Winner 2006, 2007

Crufts Qualification

Working results: Anlageprüfung 104/108,  BGH - A/1/2/3

Anthony cracked one of his back teeth. My vet sent us to a tooth clinic and they said it had to come out because he had an infection in the root. I went back with him the next day and he had a general anaesthetic to remove it. He took quite a while to wake up again but I thought it was because he was, after all, 9 and half years old. He seemed to get a bit of an appetite back and a week later had a last examination at the tooth clinic they were very pleased with the way the gum had healed. But he never really started eating properly again. When I went to the vet with him, he looked in his mouth and said that he could see no reason why he wouldn't eat. His breathing had become laboured in the last few days and when the vet started to listen to his lungs, I knew it was not good because he listened for a long time in different places without saying a word.

He told me that he suspected a tumour and our world started collapsing around us. Going home with him was for me like I knew there was no turning the clock back. We got the results back a few days later. The vet said that his lungs were full of cancer. There was no hope at all.

On the 3rd December our boy went for a last walk. For the last week or two he had needed a coat because he felt the cold so much, he was just skin and bones, every day we had to make the coat smaller around his body so that it wouldn't slip but on that day- at the smallest it would go, it hung on him like a sack. He couldn't manage a long walk but he saw a rabbit which made him look up.

When the vet came to our home, he welcomed him with a wagging tail just like he welcomed everyone. He fell asleep in my arms, even the vet was upset, he had known our boy since he was a puppy and he said this is too young to lose him. He now lies in our garden, next to Felix who we lost before Anthony joined us.

He has made a big hole in our lives.

Anthony the good boy who never destroyed anything

Anthony the boy who loved to train obedience

Anthony who played uncle to so many puppies

Anthony, Amber's best friend

Anthony, who slept next to my bed until the very end

Anthony - the show off show dog who excelled when he was in the main ring

He achieved so much in his short life, BGH A, 1,2 3, Austrian Youth Champion, Austrian champion, Austrian Show Winner, Austrian Veteran Champion and he crowned them all with becoming the World Veteran Winner just a few months before, but most of all he was a best friend, always friendly and worming his way into people's hearts.

The list is endless but we will remember him for ever, gone too soon but never forgotten.

Amber knew on Sunday night, the others all lay near him but not touching with their heads facing him. Amber lay with her head on his back for hours-she knew. The only consolation is that the vet said he had no pain, he probably just felt uncomfortable because of his breathing, at least he could go before he really started suffering. Our vet thinks the cancer was there lying dormant and was activated by the anaesthetic and the infected tooth. His immune system was very low and that is why this happened so quickly and suddenly. Over the last week he had been getting bumps under his skin so the cancer was spreading everywhere.

The vet brought the x-ray with him, I cannot believe how he had still been able to breathe, to say his lungs were full of shadows and tumours is an understatement. This is so shocking how quickly this happened, for a totally healthy dog to this in just 6 weeks