Rambo is gone. It happened just like that. I was on a short tour yesterday evening with four people on the sled. I noticed on the way back that something was a little "off" with the team but I wasn't sure what. One of the dogs kept poking at the dog next to him. But they were all running ok or so I thought.
It's only when I was unhooking the dogs that CK noticed that Rambo was limping from his back left leg. She diagnosed the injury straight away and said it might be the end of him as a sled dog. The kennel owner told me to leave him on rest for at least a week and I was hoping that CK's diagnostic was wrong.
As today was my day off, I was only told tonight that Rambo had been taken to the vet this morning where they had done an X-Ray. The ligaments around the knee were torn. This was the end of his life as a sled dog and since he was 9 years old, the decision was taken to put him down.
He was my favourite lead dog. The fact that he got injured on my tour makes it a little worse for me but everybody told me that those things just happen. He was running just behind the lead dog and you can't always spot a problem when a dog is that far away in a 12 dog team, running in the dim light of your head lamp. And even if I had noticed while driving, there was little I could have done. This injury can be caused by so many factors while running. And once it has happened, it's already too late.
The news of his death did not hit me until I discovered he was in a plastic bag in the car and I had to carry him out with CK. I could still feel the heat of his body through the plastic bag.
He was a good dog. One of our best lead dogs. He can enjoy some rest in sled dogs' heaven.
