Layla Hendry

Layla (which means "night" in Arabic) was my special friend and companion who loved life so much!  She loved people and was an uncontrollable "wiggle butt" around anyone who paid her attention.  She would sit with me on my porch every morning as the sun came up while I had my coffee and quiet time, and would become very agitated if our routine ever varied. She got great joy racing like the wind through the tall grass surrounding the edge of the mowed area around our home in the country.  She would typically run as fast as she could in circles two or three times around our house, and especially loved to do so after it had rained, spraying water from the tall grass as she went.  Her other favorite pastime was chasing and catching her Frisbee which she would do until our arms tired of tossing it.

About two months before she passed, we suspected something was wrong as her "Indy 500" races around our property decreased from 3, to 2, and then down to a quarter turn.  Her chasing after her Frisbee went from incessant high leaps to fewer and fewer chases, where she would catch it once, then lay down.  We began to notice a hard lump protruding from her side, then she fell totally lethargic and had a seizure.  The Memphis Vet Specialists kept her overnight to perform tests and to try to diagnose what was going on.  It turned out she had a rapid and aggressive form of cancer with a large hidden mass in her abdomen that was pushing against her diaphragm making it difficult for her to breathe.  She was also bleeding internally from the mass which meant the cancer cells were spreading throughout her body.

It was the hardest thing to do to have her euthanized because she loved life so much, and had lived only two years.  Her eyes were still bright, and she was so full of love, but the cancer was inoperable and she would only have suffered if we had tried to prolong the inevitable.  She will be sorely missed forever!