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Sorry this is so long...but it helped me to talk about it.
When we first saw her, she was sitting in a big wire crate outside, all shiny and clean, ears perked up, tail wagging, excited that someone was coming. She was 7 months old and had been raised and trained to be a show dog. She had great confirmation and would have done well in the ring, but for a flaw…. She had a cowlick down her nose that a judge (what do they know?) would disqualify her from the ring for that.
A week or two before, I had called Carol, our friend, Lab breeder and Lab club president and told her we were looking for a female, black Lab pup. She said she didn’t have any puppies, but did have a 7 month old female that she couldn’t show. Gerry said he did not want a 7 month old pup, but in a later call, wrote down the directions to Carol’s house. Just before Labor Day in 1994 we drove to Western Indiana to “just look” at this dog. Well, we fell in love at first sight…aren’t all puppies just the cutest thing?
We already had a yellow Lab, Jodi, who was born in our bedroom 9 years before to her Mom, Samantha (6 pups, 5 female, 1 male and only one yellow female). So we knew and love our Labs. The first one was an older male, Sam, who our son brought home from the Animal Shelter in 1974. I thought I had walked into an Angus bull when I opened the door. Little did I know how ‘old Sam’ would change me from an ‘I’m afraid of dogs’ person to a dog lover, or how we could never live without another Lab around the house.
Carol showed us her new house and then let Kelly out of the kennel. Kelly immediately ran over to the big kennel where her Mom and sisters and other kennel mates lived and ran passed them as if to say “see, I AM out…I AM free” We watched her run, with ears flapping, tail wagging and coming to us to greet us.
Our arrangement with Carol was: we could bring her back any time if it didn’t work out, or keep her for a month and then she would send us all the necessary papers, AND we would agree NOT to breed her because of her defect would not be passed on. I told her I had been there, done that, and had worked with a Vet for a year and had seen too many abused, neglected, abandoned pets come in.
We put Kelly in the ‘dog house on wheels’ (truck w/ cap) and left the pass through windows open, and, you guessed it…she stuck her head through there and the next thing you know she is in my lap snuggling.
We got her home and Jodi sort of ignored her for a while, but soon warmed up and now we had two Labs running around the house and yard (fenced in) playing and wrestling and eating together and sleeping together. The month flew by, and we went to the Lab club meeting where we knew ‘Grandma’ Carol would be, so Kelly could tell her good by. We told Carol how great Kelly and Jodi got along and we were keeping her. She started to leave and I called to her and asked how much do you want for her? She turned and said, ‘She’s yours, I know she’ll have a good home’. What a marvelous gift we got that night.
Kelly was lovable, quiet…oh, she had her rowdy times and at times she and Jodi would roar around the house and I would say, ‘do you girls want to go out and roar’ and they would run to the back door and I’d let them out. They would get in our fenced yard and literally roar around it, leaping across the small deck (almost clearing it), smash into the fence and start off again.
Kelly went to training school and became a very well behaved and socially acceptable member of society. She was loved by every one. And she grieved when we had to put Jodi down in 2000 at the age of 15. Then Kelly became Queen of the house, our family….and neighborhood.
Kelly made her first trip to Florida in April of 2000, so we could help our human daughter move into her new home. She rode in the back seat with our son Dave, (when he wasn’t driving) and slept with Dave at night. She left her black hair all over Peg’s friends house (he had almost white carpet!) and she had a ball.
Her second trip down was in December of 2000 when she had to live with Peg and Dave (daughter & son) while lived in a ‘no pets allowed rental home) We got to see her every week end and we even sneak her in with us a couple of week ends. She got to go to Key West to see her other human sister Patty and hear noises she had never heard before and live with Patty’s two cats! A few snarls and hisses came and went, but they ‘tolerated’ one another.
Her third trip to Florida was in June of 2000 when we moved to Florida. I drove the car and Gerry drove his pick up. I tried many times to get Kelly in the car, but she went right to Gerry and ‘her’ pick up. Of course I knew why she really went with him…not because they were best buds, not because they had hunted together, not because he loved walking her, but because he had SNACKS!
She settled in our rental very well and she came with Gerry to the house site where we were building our home. She went every time, because the workers always had food for her. Oh, did I fail to mention she was part ‘chow hound’? She adapted very well and the people at the country club where we were renting soon learned to love her, for the most part. Then we moved to our new home. She really liked that. She could lay in the lanai and watch the birds and the water, wander around and had no traffic to worry about. Kelly loved everyone and everyone loved her. When she stayed with Peg and Dave in their ‘gated’ community no one minded that Kelly didn’t have a leash…they loved her too.
As she aged, she got arthritis and it got worse and she started limping, and I had X-rays done this past Monday (Oct. 23) and the results were not good. We brought her home Monday night with pain pills. Kelly came into the computer room and lay down and looked up to me as if to say “Mom, I’m sick and I am ready to go.” I told her, “yes, Kelly, I know and tomorrow we will take you and let you go”. I called our son to come out Tuesday after work and the three of us took Kelly to the Vet’s. We had our time with her and we were with her at the end. And we know that Kelly is waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge and she had Jodi to play with and she has met Sammy and Sam and little Pippi and we will miss her.
When we first saw her, she was sitting in a big wire crate outside, all shiny and clean, ears perked up, tail wagging, excited that someone was coming. She was 7 months old and had been raised and trained to be a show dog. She had great confirmation and would have done well in the ring, but for a flaw…. She had a cowlick down her nose that a judge (what do they know?) would disqualify her from the ring for that.
A week or two before, I had called Carol, our friend, Lab breeder and Lab club president and told her we were looking for a female, black Lab pup. She said she didn’t have any puppies, but did have a 7 month old female that she couldn’t show. Gerry said he did not want a 7 month old pup, but in a later call, wrote down the directions to Carol’s house. Just before Labor Day in 1994 we drove to Western Indiana to “just look” at this dog. Well, we fell in love at first sight…aren’t all puppies just the cutest thing?
We already had a yellow Lab, Jodi, who was born in our bedroom 9 years before to her Mom, Samantha (6 pups, 5 female, 1 male and only one yellow female). So we knew and love our Labs. The first one was an older male, Sam, who our son brought home from the Animal Shelter in 1974. I thought I had walked into an Angus bull when I opened the door. Little did I know how ‘old Sam’ would change me from an ‘I’m afraid of dogs’ person to a dog lover, or how we could never live without another Lab around the house.
Carol showed us her new house and then let Kelly out of the kennel. Kelly immediately ran over to the big kennel where her Mom and sisters and other kennel mates lived and ran passed them as if to say “see, I AM out…I AM free” We watched her run, with ears flapping, tail wagging and coming to us to greet us.
Our arrangement with Carol was: we could bring her back any time if it didn’t work out, or keep her for a month and then she would send us all the necessary papers, AND we would agree NOT to breed her because of her defect would not be passed on. I told her I had been there, done that, and had worked with a Vet for a year and had seen too many abused, neglected, abandoned pets come in.
We put Kelly in the ‘dog house on wheels’ (truck w/ cap) and left the pass through windows open, and, you guessed it…she stuck her head through there and the next thing you know she is in my lap snuggling.
We got her home and Jodi sort of ignored her for a while, but soon warmed up and now we had two Labs running around the house and yard (fenced in) playing and wrestling and eating together and sleeping together. The month flew by, and we went to the Lab club meeting where we knew ‘Grandma’ Carol would be, so Kelly could tell her good by. We told Carol how great Kelly and Jodi got along and we were keeping her. She started to leave and I called to her and asked how much do you want for her? She turned and said, ‘She’s yours, I know she’ll have a good home’. What a marvelous gift we got that night.
Kelly was lovable, quiet…oh, she had her rowdy times and at times she and Jodi would roar around the house and I would say, ‘do you girls want to go out and roar’ and they would run to the back door and I’d let them out. They would get in our fenced yard and literally roar around it, leaping across the small deck (almost clearing it), smash into the fence and start off again.
Kelly went to training school and became a very well behaved and socially acceptable member of society. She was loved by every one. And she grieved when we had to put Jodi down in 2000 at the age of 15. Then Kelly became Queen of the house, our family….and neighborhood.
Kelly made her first trip to Florida in April of 2000, so we could help our human daughter move into her new home. She rode in the back seat with our son Dave, (when he wasn’t driving) and slept with Dave at night. She left her black hair all over Peg’s friends house (he had almost white carpet!) and she had a ball.
Her second trip down was in December of 2000 when she had to live with Peg and Dave (daughter & son) while lived in a ‘no pets allowed rental home) We got to see her every week end and we even sneak her in with us a couple of week ends. She got to go to Key West to see her other human sister Patty and hear noises she had never heard before and live with Patty’s two cats! A few snarls and hisses came and went, but they ‘tolerated’ one another.
Her third trip to Florida was in June of 2000 when we moved to Florida. I drove the car and Gerry drove his pick up. I tried many times to get Kelly in the car, but she went right to Gerry and ‘her’ pick up. Of course I knew why she really went with him…not because they were best buds, not because they had hunted together, not because he loved walking her, but because he had SNACKS!
She settled in our rental very well and she came with Gerry to the house site where we were building our home. She went every time, because the workers always had food for her. Oh, did I fail to mention she was part ‘chow hound’? She adapted very well and the people at the country club where we were renting soon learned to love her, for the most part. Then we moved to our new home. She really liked that. She could lay in the lanai and watch the birds and the water, wander around and had no traffic to worry about. Kelly loved everyone and everyone loved her. When she stayed with Peg and Dave in their ‘gated’ community no one minded that Kelly didn’t have a leash…they loved her too.
As she aged, she got arthritis and it got worse and she started limping, and I had X-rays done this past Monday (Oct. 23) and the results were not good. We brought her home Monday night with pain pills. Kelly came into the computer room and lay down and looked up to me as if to say “Mom, I’m sick and I am ready to go.” I told her, “yes, Kelly, I know and tomorrow we will take you and let you go”. I called our son to come out Tuesday after work and the three of us took Kelly to the Vet’s. We had our time with her and we were with her at the end. And we know that Kelly is waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge and she had Jodi to play with and she has met Sammy and Sam and little Pippi and we will miss her.
RIP Kelly (Cedar Hill Reach for the Sky) 1/25/1994—10/24/2006
) Or Kota or "the wild child" and DH has hunted with her Mom and Dad. She has already proved to be a great hunting dog with a whole lot of energy. Almost too much for 2 over -70 year olds. But she is keeping us younger because we have to walk her! Kota was very sad yesterday, but seems to be perking up just a little. 
Beags & Frank...you guys missed part of my last two posts...we have Dakota, a 20 month yellow Lab. We drove to South Dakota in May of 2005 to pick her up from a hunting guide/friend of DH. Kota will most likely be our last Lab as DH & I are both in our early-mid 70's and I don't think either one of us will be up to training another one like Kota. Since we got our first Lab in February 1974, we have only had one month without a Lab in our house. (had 7 when Samantha had pups in '85 
)
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