Our sweet Bruiser died peacefully in his sleep today, ten days short of his 11th birthday.
Bruiser was from our first litter and was our first serious show dog. He campaigned in 1992-94, finishing #3 in 1992 and 1994 and #2 in 1993. In 1995 he went to live with Janet Wang in South Africa, where he stayed for 18 months. While with Janet, Bruiser achieved championships in South Africa and Zimbabwe and was the top-ranked Rhodesian Ridgeback in South Africa, in both breed points and all-breed points, in 1996. He also sired serveral litters in South Africa and now has progeny from these litters there and in Europe.
Bruiser is the sire of several other dogs we have shown with some success, most notably Ch Centennial Mt Sun Hunter, who was the #1 ranked RR in 1997, and Ch Camelot's Follow The Sun, the 5-year old female who is our current 'special'. He is also the sire of Uno, our youngest family dog.
Bruiser had a full life, albeit a year or two shorter than we would have liked. We will miss him deeply.
Clayton Heathcock & Cheri Hadley
Camelot Rhodesian Ridgebacks
Post on RR-FOLK, August 25, 2001:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people (more than 60!) who wrote notes of condolence. I apologize for the 'bulk' acknowledgement.
We found out in January that Bruiser had an adrenal gland tumor and only had about six more months to live. We could have tried surgery but they told us that adrenal gland surgery is high risk and we might have lost him then. Because of his age, we decided not to risk it and to make the most of his last time with us.
I am glad that we made this decision and that we knew for the last six months to give him special love. When you have a lot of dogs, including young ones who go to shows with you all the time, it is easy to overlook the old ones. Because we knew that Bruiser's days were limited, we were able to make sure that he got the attention he deserved. He actually felt pretty good most of the last six months.
Adrenal gland tumors sometimes cause the adrenal gland to overact and from time to time he would have bad days when his heart would race and he would feel obviously bad. We gave him propanalol, a 'beta-blocker' that is used in human medicine to slow down the heart rate and when he showed signs of an adrenaline rush we would double his propanol. He was especially energized this year because we had the audacity of adding Hadley to our family. We didn't let them run together--even though Hadley lived in mortal fear of Bruiser and never thought of challenging his dominance, we just didn't think it would be good for Bruiser to be constantly exerting himself bullying poor Hadley (to say nothing of the effect it would have had on Hadley's show psyche). Nevertheless, at least once a day Bruiser would strut out to the kennel fence and let Hadley know who was the top dog of Camelot. In fact, he even did this the day before he departed.
Last Wednesday when I came home from work and went into the kennel to feed Hadley, Uno, and Dawn, all of the house dogs came running around to the kennel door to be fed, as they always do. When I looked out and saw that Bruiser was not among them, I knew that his time had probably come. Sure enough, when I went in the house, I found him lying on our bedroom floor, where he normally spent the days.
He was a great dog--on of my special ones. I am glad that we decided to keep Uno--now we will have two of his kids in our household who will remind us of him for the next 12 years or so.
Today would have been Bruiser's 11th birthday--please take a look at his photo on our Camelot web site.
Clayton H. Heathcock
| AKC #: | HD888499 |
| Call name: | Bruiser |
| Sire: | Ch Calico Ridge The Warlord ROM |
| Dam: | Ch Deer Ridge Morganna ROM |
| Whelped: | August 25, 1990 |
| Breeders: | Clayton Heathcock & Cheri Hadley |
| Owners: | Clayton Heathcock & Cheri Hadley |
| OFA: | RR-3219G26M, RR-EL266-T; RR-TH11/80M-T |
| CERF: | RR-352/1999-112 |
| CHIC: | Canine Health Information Center |
| AKC DNA: | V156917 (CD DJ AA CE DE FH CD CC FH AA) |
Check out Bruiser's pedigree and breeding summary.
Read a story about Bruiser's sojurn in Africa.
Return to the Camelot home page.
Last modified Monday, September 18, 2006.
The URL of this page is http://camelotrr.com/bruiser/index.html