I want to add a bit about Sly. Sly came into our lives when he was about 6 years old — wow, that’s eight years ago! He was almost comatose when he arrived and it took a single very easy medical test to discover that his thyroid was almost completely inactive. Why his breeder (and relinquishing owner) hadn’t bothered to check was a mystery to us.

In addition, Sly had a neck wound that went about 270° around his neck, completely ripped open. According to the relinquisher, he had “attacked another dog”, which we found very dubious, considering he could barely stand on his feet due to his hypothyroidism. We believe that he was probably attacked by two other dogs that the breeder had left alone with him.

He was such a sweetheart — just a big old teddy bear — that we decided to adopt him ourselves. He has been such a wonderful guy, and I quickly started calling him “Pooh Bear” because the shape of his head looked to me something like a bear’s head. In the last two or three years, he’s gotten extremely grumpy…in fact, he really feels the need to keep other dogs at a distance so they don’t bump into him or disturb his rest. He can lift his lip (as seen in this video) and look just like the Alien (from the old Sigourney Weaver movie)!

We love Sly so very much. I can’t imagine what life will be without him.

Czar/Tzar hasn’t been with us nearly as long as Sly, but he is such a little gentleman and a sweet charmer. He wants nothing more than to be loved…that’s all he asks for. He wants to be near one of us at all time. During the day, he is almost always found lying somewhere near my chair in the office, and he sleeps on the bed between us, often near our heads. I’m going to miss him terribly.

Sly’s very fortunate to have you two caring for him!