DASH SHAMA (2003-2012)
It is with great sadness and disbelief that we announce the recent, unexpected and untimely passing of our good and loyal friend Dash. Dash passed away on August 30 at night while in the care of the Leaside Animal Clinic, he basically died of surgical complications as a result of his having bloated and torsioned some 6 months ago.
Dash was David’s good friend and working partner as well as The Original Dog House’s temperament assessor; in fact he had the final say as to who we could safely enroll. Approximately 9 years ago while in early retirement David found and rescued Dash as a 9 month old puppy with serious anger issues as a result of the mistreatment he endured while with his former owners, in fact he was slated to be put down at the humane society because he was graded as dangerous.
This did not stop David when he saw the big boy with the long snout and large ears; in fact he had to have him in order to help his older female German Shepherd ‘Zip’ who was also an abused dog with aggression issues. In fact when David was hesitant about adopting Dash his wife Marilyn told him how can we not have both a Zip and a Dash and so the adventure started. In September 2004, Dash and David together founded The Original Dog House because nothing out there was good enough to care for Zip and Dash when David and Marilyn would travel.
From that point onwards, Dash and David worked together welcoming clients, rehabilitating hundreds of dogs and generally bonding together as one. Dash was David’s good and loyal friend always ready to place himself in harms way in order to protect him. He was a business partner like none other. Now 8 years later after having built The Original Dog House together, Dash has bowed out due to severe health ailments which he could not overcome.
It is as if Dash knew the end of the road for him was near because he took our new German Shepherd rescue Czar under his wing and taught him as much as he could within the short time he had left and when he felt Czar was ready to work with David he tagged him in and Dash stepped out for his well deserved rest.
Unfortunately, David was not ready for Dash to leave and certainly not in such a permanent manner. That said, David and Czar will pick up the reigns and continue their work as Dash would have wanted them to. David and Czar shall be at David’s office at The Original Dog House along with their family pet Loo as Dash and David have done for the past 8 years.
We wish to thank all of our Clients / Friends for the very kind emails, telephone calls and personal visits to David in order to honour Dash’s accomplishments and memory at The Original Dog House.
Rest in Peace Dash we will all miss you.
With love and admiration from all your friends at
The Original Dog House
