A friend of mine had a beautiful chocolate lab who developed a growth on his head that turned out to be a cancer. They did surgery and he seemed cured for a while but his behavior became erratic and he bit family members who touched him wrong and they had him euthanized. The vet found that the tumor had returned.

As a child I used to play with various dogs in the neighborhood but was cautioned to leave the cocker spaniel at the corner alone. He would lie on his porch and I wanted to make friends. I was probably about 8 when I crept up on the porch and sat beside him--and was bit on the shoulder. They had the dog destroyed, but at the time I felt horrible, knowing I should have left him alone and it was all my fault. In hindsight, I see that if it hadn't been me it would have been another child bit, and the outcome would have been the same. The dog should have been kept where children couldn't approach him if he was a biter.

SRS