*LittleRedToyota

It's over now.
He entered his eternal sleep at the vet's office yesterday. It was over very fast. He only breathed twice after the vet gave him the shot, and then he was gone.
It was an awful day. When Marius and I took the last walk with him, I cried all the time. Knowing that it was his last walk, that he wasn't going back inside the house and run around before stopping by my mother for being pat, before running back to us, it was just too painful. He started walking to the frontdoor, but was confused when Marius led him to the car. I was heartbroken, when I saw him jumping in, faithfully, believing that he was only going with us for a trip. He looked happy, probably believing that we were going to our cabin, like we usually do in the weekends. He enjoyed being there, so his ear was pointing curiously forward, his eyes was glued to the road, and he had his characteristic "smile" on his face.

A wonderful dog has ended his life, hopefully his last year together with us has been a happy year for him, since his past was very tragic. He was found homeless, hungry, sick and skinny by the police, who took him to an animal-shelter. There he slowly recovered and started to grow fur again. After a year at the shelter, Marius and I read about him and felt very sorry for him because no one seemed to be willing to adopt such old dog. So we adopted him and on May 10th 2007, we finally got him home. He adjusted very fast to his new environment, and soon became a beloved family-member.
He and I had a little fight over who had the highest rank in the family (he has probably been a lead-dog in his past life), but after a while (and lots of training), he accepted me as his leader, and we came along very good.
He was very nice and patient to the kids in the family, and they loved him just as much as he seemed to love them. And we all smile by the thought of all the funny things he did sometimes.
He was a highly skilled thief... and everything he stole, he buried in his bed. So we knew where to find it...
He loved to eat chocolate-paper, even though he throwed up afterwards. We tried to give him chocolate, but he was not interested in that. Only the wrapping. Wierd guy...
I could go on telling about him forever...
We'll all miss him a lot, and remember him as the wonderful dog he was. We didn't get a long life together, but the time we had have left us with lots of good memories. He got weaker everyday, and at last we saw that it was best for him that we put him to sleep.

Good bye for now, Drake. We'll meet again someday. Thanks for all the good times we had!