In Honor of Angel
To tell "our story", we have to go back to my heart dog, my precious Angel. Angel was my first "show dog" and she came in a time of my life that helped to lift me out of poor health and depression. This little puppy that Julie Speer of Splendid Goldens entrusted to me, a novice, brought much joy to me and taught us all so much that we will be eternally thankful for such a blessing as being Angel's family. We worked very hard and drove 100 miles every week to attend handling and training classes. We were successful and Angel obtained her Canadian Championship in the summer of 05 when she was 2 years old. This beautiful girl gave her all to us. We bred her in November and all along her pregnancy, she was sick. We now know she had Hydrops Amnion, a rare but becoming more common disease where the uterus develops too much amnionic fluid and places the pups and mother at risk. One week before Angel was to whelp her 12 puppies, she died in her sleep. It was horrid and I wanted to give up. But my husband said, no, we will go on in "Honor of Angel." She taught us much, brought a vast amount of fullfillment to our lives at a time when our children were taking off on adventures of their own, and brought such joy, that how could I even think of putting that all down and quitting. We went on in "Honor of Angel" and we are proud to say that this fall, we have whelped our first litter of puppies and received much joy in placing them in wonderful homes and seeing the delight of the families, that we have been confirmed in our decision. We are also thrilled to have a niece of Angel's, another beautiful girl from Splendid Goldens and she too has brought much joy to ourselves and our grand daughter, Savannah. What joy. Now, time as past and such is life, we have placed this precious girl in a home to do therapy work due to a hip problem. She will be helping someone now and I think that is what truly was meant for this precious girl. We are hopeful to get a puppy from her brother someday, whom I call "her twin". We'll keep trying Angel! Thank-you Angel. We love you and you will always be in our hearts.
The Graduate!
Angel's Memorial in GRNews
I wrote this poem on the day Angel was to have her puppies.
