I posted this once before, but I thought I'd post it again for the benefit of the newer members.

Steve

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swimming_014ex(1).jpg From puppy mill to pet store to our hearts; that is how Daphne made her way home. A gorgeous,purebred white shepherd we rescued because her living conditions at a pet store were so horrendous no animal should live that way. We talked and paid her way out of there and brought her home to a life that was full of pastures, dogs, cats, swimming pools and lots of love. Today, I would handle it differently, but on that day we couldn’t leave her there.

She gave us more than we ever gave her. She became the pack leader and the mom to every puppy or dog that arrived on the scene, and there have been several. She trained each and every one in the ways of “dog” wisdom and puppy manners. She preferred outside to in, the gentle giant with the heavy white coat. Oh, she liked to come in once a day and do the circuit, collecting a dog bone and checking on the cats. But then she was ready to go out. Even in horrible weather she liked the covered porch more than the barn with the heated dog house.

A big girl, she came in at her heaviest about 120. And as with all of the shepherds we ever had, she started having hip problems. We've been there before. We kept it manageable with glucosamine and the occasional aspirin. We were talking about looking into stronger meds for her. As with everyone else outside, she needed to lose weight so we started cutting back on the portions late this summer. And it worked. Everyone lost a little weight. Daphne looked great and was getting around a lot better.


Suddenly, it seemed almost overnight, she started dropping a lot of weight and having incontinence. We checked her over, felt no masses or any other obvious sign of a major illness- and she still felt good. She was eating, drinking, getting in the wading pool and lying in the sun. This all happened in a matter of days. Seemed like only hours. We made plans to take her in for blood work early this week, just to be sure.

Jim found her in her usual place in the sun on Sunday morning. She had passed away sometime after I went to bed about 5 a.m. We don’t know from what. She had been in Saturday and was eating and drinking. She was there and then she wasn’t.

In her brief 8 ½ years I never heard her growl at a human or animal. She had the wolf eyes. Golden and bright. They say shepherds are linked more closely to their wild relatives, and you could certainly see that in her eyes. But she never looked at anyone with anything except excitement and love. She could have been formidable, but she chose not to be. You never had to ask her twice to do something, she listened that well.

She came from a place where she didn’t know what grass was, didn’t know toys were for playing, and people were for loving. I wrote a story about her last February, Daphne-saved from a puppy mill. If we hadn’t taken her I know she would have become breeding stock soon, as she had outgrown the cage at the pet store, was sleeping in filth, and had open sores on her body. And she wasn’t selling, more or less a death sentence. Like pit bulls, people are afraid of white shepherds.

So we gave her 8 years. Not long enough. It is never easy and I always wonder why I set myself up for this kind of hurt. But if we don’t give them a life, in many cases they don’t have a life. Look at the millions waiting in shelters right now. As much as it hurts, it would hurt even more to know that we could have saved some of them and chose not too. That is why we keep doing it; and that is why a lot of you that adopt a pet ultimately do it. We keep doing it because we have to. No matter how it rips your heart out to say good-bye, it would have been far worse to not have taken them into your heart and home to begin with.

And I know that because we chose to make her life better; she made ours so much richer. Thanks Daphne. You will always be part of us. You were loved.

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Puppy Mills breed misery, boycott pet stores that sell puppies. Adopt! Don't Shop

What a touching story, it's full of love.
So sorry for your loss, it must be very hard for you.
Run free at the rainbow Daphne

Not to make you feel bad or anything, but Daphene was not mine; it was a story that crossed my desk one day and I thought it was very beautiful and touching, thank you for your thoughts and feelings - it's the thought that counts, kinda reminds me of of my late Aunts Collie', Ginger.
Steve

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Puppy Mills breed misery, boycott pet stores that sell puppies. Adopt! Don't Shop

awww that made my eyes water

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We can learn a lot from shelter dogs; for
example, no matter how much you have
been hurt in the past, there's someone who
wants to love you.

Opinions ain't facts, take them in and let them go.

ahh what a lovely story