The Original Member of the Canine Crew - Raja 7/26/1996 - 3/25/2010

For most people September 11th was not a memorable day until the attacks in 2001.  For me, it became a memorable day 5 years prior when my roommate dragged me to a pet store. 


I was 25 and had decided I wanted a dog.  My best friend had happened into a pet store that rescued animals and she took me there the next day.  They had just received a litter of 5 Border Collie/Rottweiler mixes.   As I walked to the right side of the container, one of the puppies from the left launched over his litter mates and planted a kiss on my cheek.  I knew right then and there that the black and tan puppy was coming home with me.  He was named Raja after the Tiger in Aladdin.

He was smart, energetic and as I was about to find out, spiteful.  It was our third morning together and I had gone out for a couple hours two nights in a row and apparently that was not OK with Raja.  The next morning as I was getting ready for work, I watched as he jumped onto the couch, looked me in the eye and lifted his leg.  In his younger days, his favorite toy was the tennis ball.  He would fetch it for hours if you let him.  If you didn’t throw it fast enough he would jump towards you.  If you didn’t want to play he would simply throw it in the air himself or climb up the stairs and drop it and chase it.  As he got older I found the flying squirrel…it flew through the air and so would he as he snatched it out of the air.

He moved with me from Arizona to California, was with me when I met my husband and was there for me through many more important life changes.  He was my best friend and I always said, "Not only does he know where I buried the bodies, he helped me dig".

On his 13^th birthday in July 2009, we noticed him limping.  By the time we took him to the vet, it had stopped.  We figured that he simply landed wrong when catching the flying squirrel and we would keep our eye on it.  It was September when he started limping again.  A trip to the vet’s office and after an x-ray there was a spot that looked suspicious but again we thought that he had just strained it, so we got some tramadol and took him home.  His limp worsened over the next couple days and we took him to see the oncologist.  The oncologist confirmed the worst; he had osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in the left shoulder.  I have to admit that I never thought one of my dogs would have cancer.  I had always said I would not put him through an amp or chemo…and when it came time to make a decision, I wasn’t ready to let him go either.  So we decided to go for 4 rounds of radiation.   He still had a limp and we figured he would always have it.  My husband built a ramp off the deck to make it easier for him to get around.  About two months after the last treatment he went in for a follow-up and x-ray.  During that x-ray, the oncologist said he was quite surprised and that Raja was a tough dog.  Apparently Raja had fractured the shoulder sometime after treatment but had figured out a way to still get around.   Six months after his diagnosis, the day came when I looked into his eyes and saw just how tired he was, so we made the difficult decision to say goodbye.  

We have his ashes in a beautiful wood urn, which sits atop a memory box.  Around my neck I wear a handmade green glass pendant that was made with some of his ashes so he is with me every minute of every day.  We have decided that just like the great athletes who have their jersey’s retired when they leave the game, Raja’s name will be retired in our family as there will only ever be one.

Come back tomorrow to meet Crew Member #2 - an adorable lab named Mopar