It is with a heavy, heavy heart to announce that Titan passed away on Monday, July 25, 2022, at 0735 hours. Titan’s passing was very peaceful and he was surrounded by his family.

In March, Titan was diagnosed with an enlarged heart.  We had just moved to the NW part of our state when Titan became ill.  Apparently, Titan had had this condition for some time and we did not know about it.  From March until July, Titan’s condition seemed to level out.  He always wanted to play and loved going on continual walks on the trails where we lived.

But his condition started to change in mid July. Titan started to have projectile diarrhea again and he was not eating like he had been. We again contacted the vet to see what options we had.  The vet prescribed an anti-biotic to help with the diarrhea. Several days  later on Friday, July 22, 2022, my wife and I awoke late in the evening to Titan standing up in his bed and breathing heavy like he couldn’t get his breath.  Titan started coughing and gagging like he was trying to get something out of his throat. My wife tried to get Titan to lay back down, but he kept standing back up.  At some point during the earlier morning hours into the next day, my wife was able to get Titan to relax and go back to sleep.  As soon as the vet’s office opened, my wife took Titan back to their office. During the vet’s examine and through various tests,  she told my wife that Titan’s lungs were filling up with fluid and he was basically drowning.  The vet prescribed Lasix to help with the fluid. The vet also talked to my wife about making a decision about Titan’s quality of life and our quality of life. The vet went onto to say if Titan was a human he would be on a heart transplant list. That really hit home to the gravity of how sick Titan was.  When my wife arrived home, she told me what the vet had told her.  After a lot of soul searching, we both agreed it was time to euthanize Titan.  Since it was Saturday, we called the vet and told her we wanted to spend the rest of the weekend loving Titan and allow Choctaw to do the same. We made an appointment for 0715 hours on Monday morning to euthanize Titan.  The rest of the weekend was spent loving Titan.  Despite the fact that Titan was so sick, he wanted to play and love his family.  I honestly think Titan knew how sick he was and he wanted to make every minute count.

When Monday morning arrived, my wife and I were so heart broken.  Before we left for the vet, Titan and Choctaw played like they always did in the mornings. My wife and I both started to cry as we walked out to the Jeep to load Titan in his crate.  My wife sat in the back seat so she could be close to Titan on the drive.  As we started to drive, Titan started barking like he always did when my wife would load him into the patrol vehicle to go to work.  When we arrived at the vet, the time had come to say goodbye. I will not go into the details of Titan’s last minutes, but I will say it was very peaceful with our arms around him.

Below I have put together a photo gallery of Titan’s life at work and at home.  Titan was such an incredible dog who gave his life to serve.  Rest easy my four legged brother in blue!!!

Next up, how Choctaw is dealing with Titan’s death.