Miles

This is such a difficult post that I have put off for years. I posted some videos of Miles in 2017 and meant to make this post after the update, but just never could do it.

We lost Miles Per Hour and his littermates Kohle and Ottobahn when they were all just 6 years old in 2016.

Miles Per Hour October 2015

We lost Kohle first. He had had a broken leg in 2015 that just would not heal. The vets did not think it was bone cancer, but looking back, it may have been. He eventually had to have the leg amputated. He was happy and seemed healthy enough for awhile, then he suddenly got very sick very quickly. The vet was unable to save him and was uncertain what was wrong with him. She figured that it was some type of cancer. Too young, just like his mother. Like his mother, his death was also a mystery.

Kohle in his younger years in 2012

Ottobahn was diagnosed with bone cancer when he was only 5 and had a leg amputated to buy some time. The cancer returned in his back just a few months later. After his cancer came back, his family brought him to see Miles one last time. They were so happy to see each other. Otto was too fragile to be able to play, so Miles had to be leashed to keep him from jumping on him and playing rough like they always did. I was glad we got to say goodbye to Otto. For most of his life he spent 2 days a week at my house playing with Miles, so he always felt like my dog too. Such a special boy from such a special litter of pups!

Ottobahn 2016 on three legs with a prematurely white face

I lost Miles a few months later, on August 5th of 2016. He coughed a few times after coming in from outside at last turnout that night. It sounded like he had a bit of grass caught in his throat. His breathing got worse during the night and he was up and down a lot and was still coughing. We tried a little food and water to get the grass to go down but it continued to get worse.

By morning his breathing was very labored. We were at our vet's when they opened. They found that he had air around his lungs preventing him from breathing. A needle was inserted into his chest and air was released. Instantly he could breathe again and was bouncing and happy and seemed normal again. That was very temporary and within another hour he was having trouble breathing again.

Miles Per Hour in Colorado 2016

Our vet wasn't sure what the problem was, so referred him to a Specialist. They found bubbles on his lungs that had popped and were releasing air. They kept him overnight and kept releasing air from his chest, so that he could continue breathing,. They said it was a very rare condition with no known cause. It would not just heal up if they continued to release air. They said it  normally responded well to surgery to remove the affected lung tissue. It never came back in dogs that had the surgery. They explained that you can remove half of each lung and still be able to breathe.

So they took Miles into surgery. As soon as they opened him up they saw the lungs were completely covered by the bubbles that would all eventually rupture. There was no good lung tissue there. They called me to let me know there was nothing they could do. I told them not to wake him up and to let him go.

It all happened so suddenly. There was so much more we planned to do. He had been doing fantastic in Barn Hunt competitions and was doing Rally Excellent courses flawlessly in his Rally Classes. We still wanted to do more agility and dock diving. We hadn't even tried sheep herding yet. With his brothers both passing, I had felt that he might be living on borrowed time but he had always been so happy and healthy.

Greyhound Hall Of Fame

Miles at the Greyhound Hall Of Fame in Kansas

Miles and I had been traveling all over the country and Canada delivering greyhounds to adoption groups. He was such a fun guy to travel with and always enjoyed it. One small comfort was that Miles had such a full fun life and had gotten to see the entire country and do so many things. Even though his life was too short, it had been very good.

Miles Per Hour 1/6/10 - 8/5/16

The day Miles died, my friends got together and bid on a fundraiser to win the right to name a greyhound racer. His kennel prefix was CTW for Clear The Way Kennels so they named him CTW MilesPerHour. Miles the second was a shiny black 8 month old puppy that lived on the CTW farm in Texas. I followed his race career which wasn't very long. When he retired, he came to my house and I helped him find a wonderful family. It was such a cool gift. Miles #2 has his own Facebook Page

CTW Milesperhour racing

CTW Milesperhour

CTWMilesPerHour

CTW Milesperhour at my house after retirement