Re: [PyrNet-L] In Memory of Melissa

[clhenke@juno.com]

Stephanie, what a wonderful tribute to Melissa, your love for her really
came across.  She was lucky to have you to finally give her the family
she deserved.  We are so sorry, please accept our deepest sympathy, and
hold on to those memories!

Cindy Henke
clhenke@juno.com
Ennis, Texas

"All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained
in the dog."  ~ Franz Kafka

On Mon, 03 May 1999 23:24:07 -0400 Stephanie W <srwhitney@earthlink.net>
writes:
>We adopted Melissa about ten years ago from a rescue organization.  
>She
>was said to be a
>one year old Australian Shepherd.  Since that was one of the breeds I
>had always admired, I
>couldn’t resist.  When we saw her, she was hardly what I expected,
>skinny and shabby
>looking, not the dog of my dreams.  But, somehow, hearing that she had
>been abandoned,
>left to starve in an empty house with a litter of puppies when her
>family moved out, I
>couldn’t turn away and leave her there, so she came home with us.
>
>She growled at me once in the first day or two.  I had come near her
>when she had a rawhide
>bone I had given her.  Terrified, I took the rawhide away from her, 
>gave
>her a lecture about
>how everything she had came from me, and gave it back to her.  She
>looked at me so
>seriously, as if she understood what I was telling her, and she never
>growled at me again.
>
>For the longest time, she crouched and peed if we raised a hand or 
>even
>raised our voiced.
>Who knows what she had suffered before she was abandoned.  We found 
>out
>many years
>later from an x-ray that she had had a broken bone in that first year
>that had never been set
>and never quite meshed.  She also had a very strange, muffled bark.  I
>asked the vet if she
>had been debarked.  She said no.  Her bark eventually became strong 
>and
>normal, so
>something had been done to make her unable to bark nornally for at 
>least
>a year.
>
>She must have known kindness, too, though.  She loved to be combed, 
>even
>if mats caused
>pulling.  She never complained.  She also loved to lay with her head 
>on
>your shoulder.
>
>Through the years that we had her, she was the most obedient dog I’ve
>ever known.  She
>seemed to try to figure out what you were going to want her to do next
>and do it before you
>could say it.  She would always run up to bed a minute before I went 
>up,
>regardless of the
>time.  I finally figured out that she had figured out that we went to
>bed after I turned off the
>computer, so she ran to the bed when she heard the off button click.  
>I
>discovered this when I
>turned off the computer in the afternoon one day and found her in bed
>when I went looking
>for her.
>
>I regret not being aware of obedience competition while she was well.  
>I
>know that she
>would have loved it, because she always seemed to long to have 
>something
>to do for me.
>
>As she got her health back after being starved almost to death, she
>developed a beautiful coat
>which was quite easy to groom and she had the most beautiful face I’ve
>ever seen.
>
>She didn’t like other dogs, and she was harsh with Ciaran (IW) as a
>puppy, requiring one
>trip to the vet’s, but when he reached adulthood, she changed her 
>mind,
>and would sit and
>gaze at him with admiration.  Although she was so sick, she was much
>more patient with
>Anais (Pyr puppy) in the last few weeks.
>
>Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with kidney failure almost a year ago
>and began the long,
>slow deterioration with some ups and downs, and lots of support from
>special diets and
>subcutaneous fluids once or twice a day to flush the toxins from her
>body.  She never
>complained, and at her sickest would try to position herself between 
>me
>and whatever she
>perceived as a danger.
>
>Over the last few days, she refused to eat and began throwing up quite
>often.  It was getting
>harder for her to walk and her breathing sounded laboured.  She still
>met me with a wagging
>tail when I came home.  We realized that we had to make the decision 
>we
>had hoped not to
>have to make.  We had to let her go.
>
>I know that tonight I will miss having her curled up at my feet.
>
>Melissa was a wonderful, loyal, faithful dog and I do miss her 
>already.
>
>Stephanie, Anais (Pyr puppy), Ciaran (IW), Midnight & Smedley
>
>
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>
>

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