I just came in form burying Sonny, our Malinois rescue. His time was up
and we took him to the vet to be euthanized. We had actually done that
6 months ago when we thought that he had lost control of his bowels, but
that turned out to be colitis and was easily fixed up with some
antibiotics and steroids. However, he was deteriorating with age and
the vet said that it was time to put him down when he could no longer
stand up on his own. He had been getting steadily worse but yesteday
the back end gave out and he could no longer get up or stand up on his own.

Sonny was a Katrina rescue (from Florida) who came to us 9 years ago at
the age of 5, after he had been evicted from the trailer park where his
owners spent their winters. The woman dropped him off on the way to a
conference in Toronto and said she would check on the way back in three
days and if things weren't working out she would take him back. She did
not check in. Nor did she return phone calls or emails. He was so bad I
was going to send him back. He is the only dog I was never able to
train to heel off leash and to come when called. He never really ran
away. He would always come back eventually.

He used to scare the hell of visitors, barking and growling as if he was
going to rip them apart if they tried to come in. He was even worse when
they were leaving. The second day he had him my brother came by with
his Lab to walk with the digs. Sonny was acting so vicious that my
brother would never bring his dog back. I know that he would have been
fine off the leash, but given the way he had been acting I can't blame
him for not wanting to risk a repeat.

He was a high energy dog who needed to run. If he had been out for the
daily two mile walk (5 mile run for him) he burned up enough energy to
behave. He finally started to settle down at age 10 and turned into a
really nice dog.