Tag Archives | Goodbyes

Groundhog Day, Imbolic, St. Bridget’s Day, Candlemas, and others all land somewhere on or around February 2nd.

No matter what you call it or what religion celebrates it they all mark a time of renewed life and it’s our human nature to look back on the old as we stand on the cusp of the new.  Oftentimes we are hoping for better yet to come and sometimes we are fondly looking back.

2011 brought a number of losses to the community of doggie folks that I know well and this brings emotions of mixed sadness and joy.

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When Dante and I first met Diane, she had a wonderful German Shepherd named Jesse and it was with Jesse that Dante started his visiting career – and never had there been a better guide for him.

However, there was a better buddy!

Hunter the Golden Retriever came into Diane’s life sometime in 2000.  He had been released from the Seeing Eye program for a medical condition – he coughed when too much pressure was put on his collar.  Otherwise, he was a solid working-dog-to-be.

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There were hundreds of fireflies serenely flying all around the yard Riley loved the night she left her family. There was no question that it was little Miss Riley telling everyone she loved them and everything was going to be OK.

The adorable, fuzzy, petite Ewok had come to Linda and her family only three years before.  A cuddly, sweet, gentle soul who loved doing her “bang, bang” trick Riley was more than happy to snuggle up in everyone’s lap one minute and work very hard for Linda to try to become a therapy dog the next.  Riley ultimately told Linda she was more happy just being Linda’s personal therapy dog—and she was.

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It is raining out now—the kind of rain that is slow and depressing—not a grand thunderstorm that thrills.  I can only imagine the sky, too, is feeling the loss of Kinsey.

This very clever, almost-nine-year-old Mini Schnauzer was the proud owner of Jill and Linda.  They brought her to me when she was just a four-month-old baby-dog for her puppy class.  Bright and happy to work Kinsey sailed through her classes and found herself becoming a happy working Delta Pet Partner early in her life.  She brought her two humans with her to nursing homes and other spots where she would routinely make people smile as she sat with them for petting, or sat on their laps for a snuggle, or did a few little gag-parlor tricks to make everyone giggle.

When first I mentioned Rally O to Kinsey’s human Jill— Laughing at me Jill said, “There’s just no way.” But, of course, Kinsey would not be daunted by anyone’s doubt—she sailed through her rally exercises and always looked at the distraction toys as if to say, “Who are you kidding, I am so all over that…”  I knew then that the exercises would have to be more difficult and perhaps I needed better distraction toys.  Kinsey pushed us all to be better and better.  She helped shape the lives of her sister Shelby and baby brother Arlo as she guided them on how to live in a human world—Kinsey knew it was all about carrots…

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Callilily-Baby-Girl’s-Bagel, our first silly-named dog was in this world for only 11 weeks.

She and her six siblings were born to Ginny, a sweet collie/terrier mix whose family sent her packing to a kill shelter when they discovered she was pregnant.  She was on the usual “due to die” lists that circulate between shelters and ARF brought her up from the south to Beacon to have her babies and find them all forever homes.

Ginny was always sweet and soulful with anyone who interacted with her.  She passed her striking eyeliner on to her puppies who were born on November 6, 2010.  I got to see them when they were just hours old and we started working on their bio sensor early neurologic stimulation on day 3.

I’ve always believed that our dogs find a way back to us – I was struck by Ginny’s eyeliner – and couldn’t help but remember that Dante always had similarly striking eyeliner.  I watched her puppies as they grew and we worked with them and one always drew me to her - she was sweet, bright, eager, confident, and had the most beautiful eyeliner.

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It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of our oldest boy, Dante.  Surrounded by myself and Lawrence, his brothers, and friends who came to say goodbye, he died peacefully at home and left the pain of his arthritis, wasting and cancer behind.

He came to us shortly after we got married and he was the first dog that was “ours” together.  We were living in Greenwich Village and it was an unusually warm Spring evening – so warm, in fact, that we decided that it was just too nice for a regular walk for Atticus so we decided to head over to the dog run in Tompkins Square Park.

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Trouble was anything but trouble.

She was always happy to see everyone and always game to try any of the crazy games and challenges of Distract O Doggie class.  As a regular attendee of Distract O Doggie for the last several years, Trouble always made us laugh since she was probably the only Golden on the planet who didn’t really care for treats or toys.  All she wanted was lovin’ and we were all more than happy to give her that.

Good with the other dogs and always friendly with people, Trouble was a joy.  Even when illness started to take hold of her she still shined and sparkled as you can see from her last snow-dog photo.  Although all of us who knew Trouble will miss her terribly it will pale in comparison to how much her family will miss her as they adjust to life without Trouble – better known in class as “Happy Girl.”

We join with her family in saying goodbye to a wonderful soul – Trouble is now pain-free and healthy as she joyfully waits with Maui for her family patiently as only dogs can do.