IN MEMORIUM - Frodo was our very first International Import. He came to us at 4.5 months of age from Eva Nutzova of Kennel Queen Malverne in the Czech Republic. Frodo arrived ill, sitting in a kennel full of bloody diarrhea. His breeder felt the bloody diarrhea was from stress and said he was "completely fine" when he left the Czech Republic. A visit to our vet 36 hours later, when he was worse and running a fever of 104.5 resulted in a prescription for antibiotics, a bland diet and a diagnosis of a severe load of worms (he was vomiting 4-5 inch adult round worms). It was thought that his illness was from the severe load of parasites but unfortunately this was not the case. For the next 5 months, Frodo would get better while on antibiotics but then almost immediately relapse to the same symptoms (bloody diarrhea, lethargy and high fever) after the course of antibiotics ended. We treated for just about every gut infection imaginable until a new symptom arrived -a cough which quickly went into bronchitis and then pneumonia. At that point, it was clear that Frodo was never going to get better because he had no immune system and was succumbing to infection after infection. We let him go at 9 months of age after exhausting all of our options - Frodo was drowning in his own lung fluid and could not be kept hydrated from the loss of fluid from chronic diarrhea.

Frodo's breeder offered sympathy but never paid a dime of his thousands of dollars in vet bills which started immediately after his arrival and she refused to return any money we paid for this very sweet but terminally ill puppy. When we insisted she return the money we paid for Frodo (we did not ask her to pay any vet bills, only what we paid for him) She became nasty and cut off all communication, claiming she had no fault. Frodo's litter brother also died of a "gut infection" at just 6 months of age, which she first said was accidental ingestion of rat poison but upon investigation by her home kennel club after she was reported to them for selling a sick dog and taking no responsibility, it was found that Frodo's brother died of Clostridium Perfringins - one of the infections Frodo was treated for - a common illness that is usually very curable with antibiotics. Frodo was only with us for a short time and drastically ill during that time but he had the sweetest temperament and only wanted to be loved and cuddled. He would have been the most wonderful boy and he will be missed dearly.

Responsible breeding is not JUST about health testing your breeding stock for things that can be tested for and showing your animals to prove they meet the standard, it is about taking responsibility for the animals you produce. Animals are living beings and things can go wrong, no matter the precautions you take, but when things do go wrong, you must do right by your animals and the families you place them with. Eva Nutzova behaved like a common mill and took no responsibility for sending us a dying animal. To my knowledge Eva Nutzova and her daughter Linda Kracikova are still using Frodo's sire, "Xennon z Jasne hvezdy", for personal and public stud even though 50% of one of his litters died of probable autoimmune deficiency.

The pictures below and above taken when he was 6 months old were taken about a week after a repeat course of antibiotic were completed. This was the best he ever looked and we had hoped that he was finally better. Days after these pictures were taken he relapsed into his condition again and quickly went downhill from there. I am thankful that we have at least one good set of pictures taken of him while he was with us to help us remember what a beautiful boy he was.