Riko passed away yesterday after a long illness, the details of which I've gone into elsewhere. Knowing her these past several years has been a gift and an honor, and while her death does not come as a surprise it brings with it quite a bit of sadness.After the onset of SARD 2 years ago, she put up quite a fight and coped with her condition amazingly well. At some points she even seemed to be almost her old self again, but her last year became progressively more difficult. Her quality of life was impacted not only by her blindness, but by deteriorating arthritis and advancing senility. Her tumors, though benign, made it difficult for her to lie down comfortably even as she needed more and more sleep and rest. She dealt with all this with typical canine stoicism but one could not help but see how much she was suffering. Her owners handled the situation with a great deal of compassion and dedication right up until the end. I don't know how difficult it was for them but I can only hope that we would all be able to summon such reserves of strength and heart were we to be faced with a similar situation.
Riko thoroughly enjoyed her life, and leaves behind a loving human and canine family, including her son Ralph, now 14.
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