My initial reaction when I saw him was MYGOD he is SOOO skinny...he toped the scale at 41 pounds, literally all bone and barely enough skin to cover it. He jumped in the car and immediate sat in the front seat, apparently he had been thru this routine before...so we got home and introductions were made with my 4 yr old male Markus and my foster female Amelia, they were not too thrilled at having this wierd youngster coming in but they accepted it...right away a bath was in order to which Quinn happily obliged. Once clean with a surprisingly soft and very high sheen coat not to mention smelling good, the others could see he was a doberman after all and his poor doberman social skills were accepted.

During the week that Quinn was with me, we worked mainly on getting him up to par weight wise, with 4-5 meals a day of high carb foods...mac and cheese and mashed potatos and ground beef and brown rice...that did not go over well with the other two who were stuck to 2 meals a day with the basic kibble and ground beef... "so now this kid comes in stinky and bad manners AND he gets more food?" they asked. Sorry guys (they all got big meaty marrow bones that day - I'm such a sucker) so after finding out Quinn could turn door knobs and open the doors but had no house breaking, no response to commands verbal or handwise, unless you count crouching down when a hand came near him or cowering if you made a quick move towards him a positive response. It was during this week that I noticed he held his tongue out the side of his mouth, I though this was cool initally, until I opened his mouth and saw why he held it out the side, a huge growth was under his tongue along the right side of his jaw...so we got him into Cross Pointe at the beginning of the next week, after finally getting him up to date on his vaccines and determining more of his shaded past the tumor was removed and sent off for biopsy. The vets were not happy about his mouth tumor as they had a high rate of being malignancy, but they were extremely hopeful as Quinn had won them over with his charm...how could you not love this little guy and to only wish to know what he had experienced in his life to get to this point...unfortunately the biopsy came back malignant with a extremely aggressive cancer which no doubt had contributed to Quinns skelatal appearance on top of the starvation he had experienced...one can only hope that the reason he ended up a stray was not because of this tumor, but more than likely it was. So, I was informed of the situation and the need for Quinn to be released and saved from the severe pain that would await him if he was left to be overtaken by this cancer.

Even though I had just lost my two yr old to cancer three months prior and it has literally destroyed me, I could not and would not let Quinn be alone, so when the time came, I spent the day with him, running around, holding him, talking to him, wanting him to enjoy his time in the sun, feel the earth beneath his feet, be able to jump up on me without hearing down, exchange kisses and just share each others warmth while the wind blew by.

At the vet's as I waited for Quinn, I was crying... "please don't do this God I said, it's not too late for him" "give me some of his pain if need be, I can handle it" ... Silence, then Quinn came in, his happy go lucky self. How do you hide tears from a Doberman? Quinn saw them, came over and licked them away, as if to say... "I'm ok with this Mike, it's alright" so I got down on the floor with him, and the vet waited until we were ready and I held Quinn and rubbed him and scratched him and spoke to him as he faded...For such a little creature, he had such a HUGE and wonderous soul that endeared anyone who met him.

His parting has left a big hole in my heart, but now he's at the Bridge, making introductions and if I know any betetr he is probably lifting his leg on the Bridge, leaving his mark for everyone after him to know that he was there and for the day that I cross and come to the Bridge, he will probably run and come sit down and wait ever so patiently while I greet dobes previous to him and when his turn comes he'll look at me as if to say "Gee Mike, what took you so long? C'mon Let's go! I'll get the door"

Quinn crossed the bridge on January 16, 2004, knowing he was loved.