Thanks everybody for your kind wishes ... I sincerely appreciate it.

I've had a lot of dogs (over a lot of years) but this was a tougher loss for me to take than losing Poncho himself. With Poncho, I expected his death. While not pleasant, Poncho stopped producing by 7 years of age, and then faded out on me over a period of 2 years, until finally I made a decision he had faded out far enough. By contrast, Silverback was 10 years old and had never been sick a day in his life. He was still fertile and, up until a week and a half ago, was still looking in phenomenal shape.

Silverback was literally born in my bed, he has has always been vibrant & beaming with health, and he has been my buddy non-stop for basically his entire life.

This was a drastic and unexpected blow to me ... but all anyone can do is pick up the pieces and keep rolling ...

Jack