It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Pitou on Sunday, March 24th, 2019 at the age of ten. Pitou holds a very special place within the Great Dane Angels family.

Nigel and Krista adopted Pitou in coordination with Rob and Joanne Davis who, at the time, were with another rescue organization. Soon after Rob and Joanne launched Great Dane Angels. Through GDA, Krista and Nigel adopted many more Great Danes including: Smurfette, Ruby, Zeus, Rodrigue and Ginger. All of whom Pitou graciously accepted and adopted as his own siblings.

Prior to Pitou’s adoption, however, he went through several foster homes with Bruce Jones, Leon Johnson and for a time at Rob and Joanne’s. Without exception all saw Pitou as very special and not just because he was a unique brindle colour. Despite his somewhat abused past, Pitou was sweet, affectionate, friendly and playful. He was an old soul who wanted nothing more than to be happy and share a home with human, canine and feline companions.

Pitou was always ready to offer up a right, front paw in friendship. It was his way of reaching out to connect with those around him. As you may have noticed, Pitou also adorns many banner images on this website. In fact, even our logo was digitally rendered from a profile of Pitou’s handsome face. We’ve decided for the time being to leave these images in place.

Since the moment Pitou was surrendered to us he experienced a trembling in his legs. This was most pronounced when he tried to stand still for a brief time and when he was eating. Nigel built him a riser to help him as stooping to the ground to eat or drink water was not an option.

Over time this trembling had periods where it was more severe than others. And over the last several years, these “episodes” were accompanied with severe pain, laboured breathing, increased heart rate and an inability to walk properly. Initially it was thought these were related to his pancreatitis. But this was eventually ruled out. It was believed that his issue was neurologically related.

Nigel and Krista would often administer pain meds to manage these 24-36 hour episodes as they appeared several times a year. And Pitou always recovered and returned to his old self. But this past weekend (Friday, March 22nd, 2019) would be Pitou’s last. Despite Nigel, Krista and their vet’s best efforts to intervene, Pitou failed to respond to any pain medications and declined rapidly over 48 hours. By Sunday morning Pitou was in distress and it was plainly evident he wasn’t going to recover. To end his suffering, Pitou was euthanized. He went quietly and quickly.

We will miss you Pitou, your family misses you and may you long be an ambassador on behalf of the efforts all of us at Great Dane Angels make to help those like you.

We miss you and we love you!

GDA