We lost our beloved family dog yesterday morning. Clark (known by Caveman by ABR) came into our home in January of 2016. He was the center of our home, spoiled beyond belief, and deeply loved by all of us. He really made our family whole, and we are heartbroken. We had 6 1/2 wonderful years with him. We adopted him heartworm positive, and ABR treated him. But as boxers often have, he ended up with heart troubles and was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (or ARVC) after he collapsed on a short/easy walk in 2020. Our local vet took 2 hours to get his heartbeat normal, and then the cardiologist ran a 24-hour EKG with the holter vest (3 times, which he hated) and put him on monthly heart meds, and that gave us another 2 1/2 years. Since he was double adopted before he came to us, we know that he was ~10-11 years old. He was our emotional support dog when my husband lost his dad just last month, and we desperately wanted more time with him. He was such joy in our family, and our hearts are broken. He had an episode a month ago, right after my father-in-law’s memorial service, when he chased my mother-in-law’s dog out after a racoon, then came in and collapsed. And he just wasn’t the same after that. We were all with him when he collapsed again yesterday morning, and he died in our arms. It was fast, but it was hard.

I just want to let you know that we loved Clark (Caveman) with all our hearts. He was the best dog in the world. We did everything we promised to do, from loving him, and giving him a forever home. We may have been his 3rd home, but he was meant to be with us.

Thank you for letting him into our family. Even when the pain isn’t so fresh, we won’t be adopting again. We have aging parents that live across the US, and honestly, losing Clark so soon after losing my husband’s dad, it’s just too hard. But thank you for letting me share our story with you. He was the best dog and we loved him so very much. We won the jackpot with this one, he was the best.

.